A police officer who crashed his patrol car into a hotel while answering a 999 call has been cleared of dangerous driving.

PC Sean Allman, 38, based at Shoreham, may face a lesser charge of careless driving.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has yet to decide whether to pursue this action.

PC Allman, of The Close, Brighton, hugged his wife and family yesterday after a jury at Lewes Crown Court found him not guilty of dangerous driving at the end of a week- long trial. They took more than four hours to reach their verdict.

The officer had been driving to an emergency in Lancing from Brighton on August 5 last year.

As he sped along Kingsway, Hove, at between 70mph and 80mph, he overtook a police dog van, also on its way to an emergency call, went on to the opposite side of the dual carriageway, lost control and crashed into St Catherine's Lodge Hotel.

PC Allman was trapped in the wreckage with his colleague, acting sergeant John Burgess, who suffered a fractured pelvis and cuts to his head and arms.

The defendant told the court that he could not remember anything about the accident but admitted he regularly drove on the wrong side of Kingsway while answering emergency calls. He described it as "a calculated action one takes at the time". He was off work with post-traumatic stress disorder until July this year.

Sussex ambulance driver Robin Parker gave evidence, saying he too regularly drove on the other side of the road on the A259 when answering emergency calls.

Neil Tye, PC Allman's Police Federation representative, said after the case: "PC Allman is very relieved the jury has acquitted him of dangerous driving but until a decision has been made as to whether the CPS will pursue a prosecution through the magistrates courts, he will not be saying anything.

"PC Allman is still an active Sussex Police officer."