A MAN who pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving while over the drink drive limit has been sentenced to three years in prison.

Jack Goodman, 27, had also pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by careless driving to another man who had been the front seat passenger.

Thomas McNally, better known as Tommy, 31, from Torbay, was the rear-seat passenger and died as a result of the single-vehicle collision at Halwell Cross, near Totnes, on Friday 26 April 2024.

Goodman, of Golitha Rise, Liskeard, pleaded guilty to the charges at Plymouth Crown Court on 27 November 2025.

He returned to court on Friday, January 23, 2026, where he was sentenced to three years in prison and disqualified from driving for five years on release from prison.

The court heard that the defendant had consumed a pint of lager and eight pints of Guinness during the evening before getting behind the wheel of his Seat Leon car.

It was described how Goodman had been drinking at a pub in Blackawton from around 2.30pm with work colleagues and left just before 9pm with three passengers, one of whom was dropped off at Totnes Railway Station.

During the journey one of the passengers sent a text message expressing their concern at the manner of driving, and a phone call was answered in the car, with the caller overhearing a passenger asking Goodman to slow down.

Emergency services were called to the scene of the collision at around 9.30pm, where they found two seriously injured men and the car embedded in the hedge with substantial damage to the front end.

Goodman, who had sustained minor injuries, was arrested at the scene.

Despite the efforts of officers and medical professionals, Mr McNally, died as a result of his injuries in hospital two days later.

The other passenger sustained serious injuries, which he is still recovering from.

Detective Sergeant Troy Bennett, from the Serious Collisions Investigation Team, said: ‘In his summing up, Judge Robert Linford said that Goodman did not set out to cause the death of Tommy McNally and seriously injure his front seat passenger, however that consequence is exactly what happened because he drank to excess and then drove.

‘This was a totally avoidable and utterly needless death.

‘Driving whilst impaired through alcohol is one of the most dangerous behaviours identified in the ‘fatal five’ causes of serious injuries and deaths on our roads.

‘My simple message to motorists is to not drink and then drive.

‘This collision has had a devastating impact on the friends and family of Tommy, and also the other passenger, who is still recovering from his injuries almost two years later’.