Martin Skinner jumps for joy leaving jail

Martin Skinner, 41, gave the thumbs up as he walked free from prison having served less than half his five-month sentence for the smash that left his female passenger with life-changing injuries.

The property developer had previously got into trouble with magistrates for turning up two hours late to his careless driving trial - and claimed his alarm clock hadn’t gone off.

Skinner a father-of-one who lives in Mayfair, was under the influence of the Class A drug when he ploughed his Porsche into a tree. He was going at such speed that the engine flew out of his Porsche 911 GT3.

He was convicted of careless driving and failing to provide a specimen to police.

He was jailed for 22 weeks and banned from driving until May 2022.

Skinner, who lives in exclusive Belgravia, central London, lost control of the Porsche on the A281 near Rudgwick, on August 24 last year.

In the incident, his 30-year-old female passenger received serious brain injuries.

Skinner was showing off to the woman before the smash, Worthing magistrates’ court heard.

Police found that on the morning of the crash, he tried to set up a supercar trip to France, but his friends turned down the idea.

Instead, he decided to “go rallying” to a business contact’s home in Rudgwick.

That evening, he persuaded his passenger to come for a drive in his 190mph Porsche.

She told the court that he drove so quickly everything was a blur, so she asked him to slow down because of the winding road.

But he ignored her and sped round a bend at such speed that he lost control and crashed. She was flown to King’s College Hospital in London and spent a week in a coma.

Thirteen months later, she is still recovering from her injuries.

Skinner tested positive for cocaine at the scene. But after being taken to Guildford Hospital he refused to give a legally admissible sample to measure the drug in his blood.

Initially, he pleaded not guilty, blaming the road surface for the crash – even though there had only been two crashes on that stretch in ten years – and claiming he was not in a fit state to give a sample to police while in hospital.

However, following legal advice he changed his plea to guilty.

Skinner said his once jet-set lifestyle flying first class, managing a £500m property portfolio came crashing down along with his marriage thanks to his addiction to cocaine.

He said before his arrest he was struggling to stave off administration for his property firm Inspired Asset Management, which had been badly hit by Brexit and government changes to the buy-to-let market.

“Before my arrest, I probably slept around eight hours in one week,” he told MailOnline.

“To keep the business going, I put my health and my survival at risk.”