A DRIVER who had been drinking and had taken legal highs hit and injured an eight-months pregnant woman after he took a car without the owner's consent.

Daniel Grant Southcott, 27, of Trinity Street, Taunton, refused to take a breath or blood test after he was arrested following the crash on the B3227 at Norton Fitzwarren on November 14 last year.

Taunton Magistrates' Courts heard that the driver was "inebriated by alcohol and intoxicated by ingesting legal highs but obstructed the police by refusing a breath sample and blood sample to identify the level of inebriation and intoxication".

Southcott, who admitted the offence, was banned from driving for 24 months, received a community order and was ordered to pay a £60 victim surcharge.

He also pleaded guilty to an offence of failing to stop and not giving his name and address after another person was injured when he crashed a car at the junction of Priorswood Road and Cheddon Road, in Taunton, for which he wsa given a community order.

No separate penalties were handed to Southcott after he admitted further offences of failing to surrender to bail, begging, driving without the correct licence, driving without insurance, driving without due care and attention, and breaching a conditional discharge imposed for causing criminal damage and begging.