A drink-driver who killed an aspiring model when driving the wrong way along the M62 motorway has been jailed for eight years.

Rebecca Caine, 20, of Birstall, died from multiple injuries in the high-speed head-on collision near Littleborough.

Zimbabwean national Wilfred Museka, 31, pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving at an earlier hearing at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court.

Museka, who gained political asylum after arriving in the UK in 2000, had been to a family party in Manchester.

He drank so much alcohol that he could not recall how or why he had later travelled to where the crash took place, the court heard yesterday.

His vehicle careered into the path of a car containing Miss Caine, who was a back seat passenger.

She had just returned from holiday and had visited Manchester to see a friend perform at a nightclub in the city and was on the journey home in the early hours of September 16.

Museka was arrested and found to be more than twice the drink-drive limit.

He had never held a full driving licence and had 11 previous convictions for driving matters including drink driving.

Sentencing him Judge Adrian Smith said: “This can properly be described as a flagrant disregard of the basic rules of motoring caused by a self-inflicted inability to exercise any judgment by the consumption of large amounts of alcohol.”

Tina Landale, prosecuting, said Miss Caine and three male friends had spent an evening together at the Printworks club in Manchester.

Museka had driven from his home in Clayton, Greater Manchester, at about 10pm on September 15 to attend a house party in nearby Openshaw.

He drank cans of lager and rum mixed with Red Bull before he got back into his Renault Megane vehicle.

His vehicle was seen on CCTV passing no entry signs on to the exit slip road to the eastbound carriageway of the M62.

One driver swerved to avoid the oncoming Museka while the driver of the Chevrolet Matiz, carrying Miss Caine, safely overtook a minibus taking 11 women to Halifax and then drove into the path of the defendant – who was travelling at “motorway speed” – with barely a second to swerve.

Miss Caine, who was not wearing a seatbelt as she was sitting next to a drum, was thrown from the rear window of the vehicle.

The other occupants of the car received cuts and bruises.

Museka had driven one and half miles the wrong way, the court heard.

The father-of-two pleaded guilty to driving with excess alcohol, driving with no licence and no insurance.

He also admitted fraud by representation in lying to his online insurers that he had held a British driving licence for more than five years. In fact he possessed a provisional licence.

Judge Smith said no sentence of the court “can possibly reflect the loss of life of Becky, a young bright, hugely popular young woman about to complete her university education”.

Museka was banned from driving for seven years.