A BUSINESSMAN who caused ‘carnage’ in a four vehicle crash when he used a mobile phone at the wheel, has been jailed.

Michael Bradshaw’s BMW drifted onto the wrong side of the road when he was text messaging, Leicester Crown Court was told on Friday.

He narrowly missed two oncoming cars before colliding with a Subaru, a moped, then a Toyota following behind them.

The 16-year old rider of the moped suffered a fractured skull, a punctured lung, a cracked sternum and a cracked eye socket.

The crash happened on the A6 as Bradshaw was approaching a roundabout near Market Harborough on January 12 last year.

The 40-year old married father who has young children had admitted a charge of driving dangerously.

He was jailed for four months despite the judge being told that he was due to have surgery to remove a brain tumour this week.

Bradshaw, who is global contracts director with Warrington based construction company, TAB Refractory Construction and Maintenance Company, had driven from Warrington to Birmingham for a business meeting, and had later been on his way to meet a former colleague in Market Harborough when the accident happened.

Bradshaw, of Barford Close, Westbrook, told police a ‘sudden flash of light’ had caused him to swerve.

He at first denied having been using his phone, but analysis of the device proved otherwise.

Sentencing him, Recorder Stuart Sprawson told him his actions had caused ‘carnage and injury’.

Steven Levine defending said his client had shown an exceptional degree of remorse, and his actions had been a momentary lapse.