The former partner of a drink-driver who slammed his car into a pub before running away and leaving her trapped in the wreckage says he has yet to apologise for his actions.

Nicola Vobe was a passenger in a car driven by Justin Thomas which ended up ‘embedded’ in the wall of the Synod Inn after they had attended a friend’s wedding party at the Ffostrasol Arms on the night of 18 August, 2017.

Ms Vobe had to be cut free from the mangled car and later underwent surgery to remove a large portion of her bowel.

At the time of the crash she was working as a taxi driver and in the kitchen of a caravan park.

“I’ll never recover fully,” she told the Cambrian News. “I still cannot lift heavy weights.

“None of the papers have mentioned my main injury which was a ruptured aorta that almost killed me.

“The court was told that Justin had sent me a letter of apology, but I never had one. They also said I was off work for six weeks – in actual fact it was six months.”

In an impact statement to the court, Ms Vobe said she had been ‘left for dead’.

Swansea Crown Court heard that Thomas, 35, of Derwen Gardens, Newcastle Emlyn, downed pints of beer, amaretto and whiskey before driving towards Synod Inn.

He was handed a suspended prison sentence after pleading guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

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