A MOTHER of twins was left with “catastrophic” injuries after a car she was in ended up on its roof.

Samantha Ford is now in a wheelchair and will need care for the rest of her life after the late night accident.

She was getting a lift home when Jay Lubach lost control of his Ford Focus on a bend and the car rolled over a number of times before finishing up in a field.

Miss Ford was severely injured and needed specialist treatment in a spinal unit and has lost the sight in one eye, a court heard.

Lubach had been drinking earlier in the evening and tests revealed he had also taken cannabis, cocaine and ecstasy.

But Chelmsford Crown Court was told he was under the drink limit for driving at the time and the drugs in his system had been taken days prior to the accident.

Lubach, 28, admitted causing serious injury to Samantha Ford by dangerous driving when he appeared in court.

Judge Anthony Goldstaub QC gave him a two-year suspended jail sentence and a driving ban.

The judge told Lubach he was not going to jail straight away as the driving had been a “momentary error of judgment” and not persistent dangerous driving.

“This was an error of judgment on the approach to a band when you thought your speed was too high and you braked excessively and lost control of the car,” Judge Goldstaub said.

The alcohol and drugs in his system were not at a level that would have impacted on his driving, the judge said.

The court heard accident investigators found the car was travelling at around 50mph at the time of the accident in Tollesbury Road, Tollesbury.

The speed limit on the road is 60mph.

Frances Coles-Harrington, proseucting, said Lubach was giving Miss Ford a lift home from Mersea Island at around 11.30pm on July 6 2013 when the accident happened.

Miss Ford was taken to Colchester Hospital and was later transferred to Addenbrooke’s Hospital, in Cambridgeshire, with a serious head injury.

She also spent time receiving treatment at the specialist spinal injuries centre at Stoke Mandeville in Buckinghamshire, the court also heard. Lubach, from Cross Green, Basildon, was co-operative with police when he was arrested later, Miss Coles-Harrington said.

Caroline Moonan, mitigating, said: “He cannot explain how the accident happened, but is sorry and will never get over it.”

Lubach was banned from driving for three years and told to take an extended driving test. He was also given a 280 unpaid work order and must pay £1,200 costs.