A microlight pilot who crashed his flimsy aircraft into a garden – badly injuring himself and his passenger – was jailed for eight months yesterday.

Businessman Guy Hewer, 39, was about two-and-a-half times over the pilot's alcohol limit when his microlight plunged 50 feet to the ground in Brockweir, in the Forest of Dean, Gloucester Crown Court heard.

The Cheltenham man smashed his leg and his passenger, Andrew Smallwood, suffered three fractured ribs.

In court, Recorder Llewellyn Sellick told him: "You were flying that day with a total disregard for the rules which are in place to ensure the safety of others."

The Recorder, who was told that at the time of the incident Hewer was drinking 40-50 units of alcohol a day, added: "It is quite clear you had a serious alcohol problem."

Hewer, who runs a car repair business, had pleaded guilty to flying while over the alcohol limit, having no pilot's licence and no insurance, and flying the aircraft without an airworthiness certificate.

The Recorder jailed him for eight months for the alcohol offence with three months each, concurrently, for the licence and air worthiness offence. There was no separate penalty for the lack of insurance.

Prosecutor David Maunder said the crash happened on May 24 after Hewer and his passenger took off from Teddington, near Tewkesbury, to fly across the Forest of Dean.

David Billingham, defending, said Hewer had taken up flying in 2000 when he bought the microlight, but gave up his flying when his partner was killed in a riding accident.

On May 24 he decided to take his friend out for a flight and had drunk only one small bottle of Stella that day. However, he had been drinking the night before, said Mr Billingham, adding: "They were not discovered for about an hour-and-a-half and to relieve the pain he drank some wine he had in a rucksack."