A PUB boss who was over the limit when his Porsche collided head-on with a lorry, killing his fiancée, has been jailed for two years and four months.

A court heard Paul Holmes had been driving 'aggressively' before the smash which killed Emma Burton last summer.

The couple, who ran the Somerford Arms, had been out for the day shopping in Bath where they had a late lunch with two bottles of wine.

As they headed home to Little Somerford, with the roof down on their soft top sports car, the 51-year-old lost control on a left hand bend.

The Boxster veered across the A4 between Batheaston and Box, smashing, nearside to nearside, into a Scania lorry coming in the opposite direction.

Miss Burton, 34, was killed instantly, a judge at Swindon Crown Court was told.

Colin Meeke, prosecuting, said the accident occurred on an S-bend at about 7.30pm on July 17.

He said shortly before the car with the couple in had been driving close to another Porsche ahead of them.

While the first vehicle made it through the bends without any trouble Holmes' car drifted right colliding at about 67mph.

When the police arrived on the scene the distressed driver gave a roadside breath test of 56mg of alcohol in 100ml of breath, the legal limit being 35mg.

More than three hours later a sample of blood was taken, as the initial sample is just for screening, and he had the equivalent of 49mg of alcohol in breath.

When he was questioned he accepted what had happened insisting he had only drunk three glasses of wine, with Miss Burton having the rest.

Holmes, of The Somerford Arms, pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving while over the limit.

Andrew Banks, defending, said his client has been left devastated by what happened that day and his thoughts are with the victim's family.

"He has lost his business partner, best friend and fiancée all at the same time and that has caused a huge gap in his life," he said.

"This is a case where it was a momentary lapse. If he hadn't had alcohol in his system that would have improved his judgement."

Jailing him, Judge Tim Mousley QC, said: "Your driving and your consumption of alcohol had caused you to under steer and lose control of your vehicle.

"The car in front was a similar model to yours and had negotiated the bend at a similar speed without any difficulties.

"The overriding contributing factor for the collision was your consumption of alcohol, plus a degree of excessive speed.

"You knew that you were over the limit when you set off from Bath.

"The description of your driving by the car you followed for a while suggests that for a distance before the collision your driving was aggressive, to a degree."

As well as the jail sentence he also banned him from the road for two and a half years.

Miss Burton took over the Somerford Arms, formerly known as the Saladin Inn, with Holmes in 2012.

The pub, near Chippenham, was bought by a group of five villagers to stop it being turned into a house.

Miss Burton had previously been the landlord of the Priory Inn, Tetbury, and Holmes was a chef in London before they took over the pub.