A MAN has been jailed for dangerous driving which took place AFTER he was involved in fatal crash.

Daniel Clark, 26, was jailed for six months after he admitted driving dangerously around Boscombe for several minutes after his car collided with 42-year-old Fiona Welcome, who died from her injuries.

At Bournemouth Crown Court, prosecutor Sadie Rizzo said Clark's Peugeot 106 was severely damaged in the collision in Christchurch Road, near to Boscombe Chine Gardens, in the early hours of May 9 last year.

The windscreen was so caved in it was resting on the dashboard and steering wheel, she said.

Quoting the officer who investigated the vehicle, she said the damage would "make it impossible for the driver to clearly see the road".

Nevertheless, the court heard, the defendant did not stop at the scene and drove through a red light into Boscombe Spa Road.

He was later spotted by a witness trying to drive onto the beach, before he abandoned the vehicle in Boscombe Overcliff Drive around 1.6 miles from the crash.

The court heard Clark and his passenger Sam Jones had been returning from a nightclub in Bournemouth, and after abandoning the vehicle they went on to attend a party at Mr Jones' flat. Neither called the police.

Ms Rizzo said the defendant claimed cuts on his body were the result of a fist fight when quizzed by others at the party.

In mitigation, Lance Whiteford said: "He did know he had been in a collision. He panicked, and took what seems to be a very callous decision, but one which was done in a state of panic, to drive that car in the state that it was."

He said the car was driven "at a relatively low speed for a relatively short distance", and that his client, a former labourer who has been doing voluntary work, felt "a tremendous amount of guilt" for what had happened.

Sentencing Judge Crabtree said: "Knowing you had struck a pedestrian you did not stop, you did not inform anyone what had happened."

He said Clark had "callously" decided to carry on driving presenting "a very real risk of another incident".

"Even more remarkably you continued with your evening, meeting the girls without any reference to anyone about what had happened," he added.

The defendant, of Vancouver Road in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, was also banned from driving for two years and three months.

The court heard that, after a review, the Crown Prosecution Service had determined there was not enough evidence to charge him with causing death by dangerous driving.