A bus thief who stole a double decker and took it on a drunken joyride has been jailed for year.

Janusz Moiczek careered into a second bus and then into a garden wall as he tried to keep control of the vehicle, stolen from a depot in Oak Road, West Bromwich.

He later admitted drink-driving, stealing and damaging the bus and driving without a licence and insurance.

Now the 31-year-old, from Southall in London, has been locked up for 12 months and banned from driving by a judge at Isleworth Crown Court.

Warley magistrates were told in February that Moiczek caused £5,000-worth of damage to a parked single decker bus he had initially tried and failed to start as he pulled out of the depot.

He caused a further £8,000-worth of destruction to the double decker as he mounted a pavement and rammed a wall just around the corner, in Beechdale Road, in the early hours of February 3.

Kelly Hale, prosecuting, said police officers arrived to find Moiczek trying to climb the wall he had hit in a bid to flee the scene.

“Police told him to stop and he did. He was clearly drunk,” said Miss Hale.

“There was a substantial amount of damage to the buses and the risk to the public was great, albeit at 4am, but people would still be around and he was driving under the influence.

“Somebody could have been seriously injured or even a fatality could have occurred.”

During his appearance at Isleworth Crown Court, Moiczek also pleaded guilty to a burglary on January 13 after he entered a house in Hounslow with friends to get alcohol.

He was traced through DNA on a cigarette butt left at the scene.

He also admitted possessing a bladed article after being found acting suspiciously in a phone box in Southall in March.

He was arrested and claimed to have been putting signs up.