A Machynlleth van driver who caused serious injury to an off-duty police officer after overtaking a lorry near Bow Street has been jailed.

Ian Vaughan, 32, of 79 Bryn y Gog, Machynlleth, pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving to Edward Bates on the A487 between Bow Street and Talybont on 20 June 2023 and was sentenced at Swansea Crown Court.

The court heard how Vaughan crashed into an oncoming car whist overtaking a lorry on a section of the road with double while lines.

The collision caused serious injury to Mr Bates which has effectively ended his frontline policing career.

Prosecutor, Alycia Carpanini, said Mr Bates was driving to work in Carmarthen and approaching a bend in the road when he suddenly saw a white flat-bed van coming towards in him his lane, overtaking a Mansel Davies lorry.

Mr Bates suffered a complex fracture to his wrist which required surgery, which has left him with limited mobility and constant pain in his wrist, and was also suffering from lower back and knee pain.

Callum Munday, defending Vaughan, said his client had been complaint with police and fully accepts responsibility for his actions.

He told the court how Vaughan had been working at a bike park but and had now secured work in a care home in Machynlleth, work which would start within weeks were he to keep his liberty.

Jailing Vaughan, Judge Geraint Walters said he was very familiar with the stretch of road in question having driven it "more times than I care to remember".

He said on the day in question Vaughan had been following a Mansel Davies lorry and then - in a manoeuvre "born out of impatience" - he had tried to overtake the HGV, deliberately contravening the solid white lines in the middle of the road in so doing.

He said Mr Bates, like any driver on that stretch of road, could not have expected to see someone "coming at him" on the wrong side of the road in the no overtaking zone.

The judge added he was concerned to read comments made by the defendant in the pre-sentence report that on the day in question his boss had been driving ahead of him on the road and had called him telling him to "hurry up" - the judge said if that was correct "I hope he has had time to think about the appropriateness of that".

With a one-third discount for his guilty plea Vaughan was sentenced to 16 months in prison.

He will serve up to half that sentence in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.

He was also banned from driving for three years and eight months and must pass an extended test before he can get his licence back.

The judge said the case was another reminder that when people get behind the wheel they are responsible not just for their own safety but for the safety of all other road users.