A car salesman whose drink driving caused a four-car crash in Patcham has been jailed for a year. 

Ashley Haulkham, 24, tried to fool detectives by fleeing the scene and reporting his car as stolen after the crash on the London Road on January 6 last year. 

His light blue BMW crashed into a parked Vauxhall Astra, which was shunted into a Ford Galaxy which in turn smashed into a Mini Cooper. 

The BMW's airbags were activated, but by the time police arrived shortly after 6am there was nobody in the car. 

Haulkham, of Ashington near Pulborough later called police to say it had been stolen from where he parked it in Mackie Avenue, Brighton, the night before.

But DNA on the airbags revealed he was lying. He was sentenced at Brighton Magistrates Court on December 20 to a year in prison for perverting the course of justice, six months for failing to report the accident and another six month for leaving the scene of an accident, which will both run concurrently with the year.

He was also disqualified for driving for a year after it was established that he had fled the scene due to being drunk while driving.

PC Alan Harris said: "Haulkham has rightly been sent to prison after he crashed his car and caused significant damage to three other vehicles.

"Not only did he leave the scene but he also reported his car as stolen to try and deceive the police that he had not been driving. He knowingly provided a false account to Sussex Police of what happened, to stop himself from having to deal with the consequences of his actions.

"Our investigations proved that Haulkham was driving that morning and a jury unanimously found him guilty of all three offences.

"This behaviour is unacceptable, Haulkham put peoples lives at risk when he decided to drive. We will always bring those committing offences to justice."