THE driver of a speeding stolen car which left the road, hit a tree and overturned has been branded "a rat" by his front seat passenger whose arm was severed in the accident.

Jimmy McLauglin did not immediately realise how badly he had been hurt after the crash on the Wool to Bere Regis road near Monkey World.

He and back seat passenger Edwin "Taffy" Palmer managed to climb out of the wrecked Vauxhall Astra.

"I didn't even know I had lost my arm," Mr McLaughlin told Bournemouth Crown Court. "I was chatting to Taffy and it was him who told me my arm had gone."

Michael Butts, prosecuting, said no other vehicle had been involved in the crash on October 5 last year.

The alarm was raised after another motorist's headlights picked out an axle and wheels in the middle of the road and was forced to make an emergency stop.

James Darcy was trapped in the driver's seat and had to be cut from the wreckage.

"Mr McLauglin's left arm was later found by emergency services in the bushes. Mr Palmer received lighter injuries," said Mr Butts.

When interviewed, Darcy insisted a fourth person had been in the car and driving at the time.

Darcy, 38, of Grand Avenue, Bournemouth, initially denied aggravated vehicle taking and driving while disqualified.

He changed his pleas to guilty after Mr McLaughlin told the court there had only been three in the car and Darcy had been at the wheel.

In his defence, the court heard that Darcy's "bad record was almost exclusively alcohol-related" and he had "a troubled family history".

Jailing Darcy for 21 months, Recorder Llewellyn Sellick said: "There is no doubt that excessive speed was the primary cause of the crash coupled with the amount you had to drink that day. It is fortunate no-one was killed."

Darcy was banned from driving for five years, his licence was endorsed and he was ordered to take an extended driving test before getting behind the wheel again.

After the case, Mr McLaughlin, who spent several weeks in hospital, told the Daily Echo his former friend had not been in touch.

"He hasn't said a word to me. He's a rat. If he was a friend he would have come to hospital and said 'Sorry'. I'm just glad he's been sent down."

First published: September 29