Teenager mowed down OAP waiting for cab outside club

A PENSIONER was thrown through the air by a car driven by a teenager who’d been taking ‘a legal high.’

Kieron Lawton mowed down the 79-year-old as the elderly man waited outside Smallthorne Victory Working Men’s Club for a taxi.

The pensioner was left with a broken toe and fractured ribs, and spent four days in hospital.

Prosecutor Dean Easthope told Stoke-ontrent Crown Court the victim was hit late on September 6: “He was waiting with his wife for a taxi. She described hearing the roar of an engine and saw the defendant’s Citroen Saxo coming from Smallthorne to Hanley on the wrong side of the road. It swerved in front of the bollards and went straight towards a taxi. It continued to head towards the pensioner and his wife in the car park.

“It swerved and collided with the pensioner and knocked him in the air.”

The car ploughed through a bollard before stopping. Lawton’s friend, who was a passenger, said they had inhaled legal highs before the crash.

Lawton told police he was travelling at 30mph when his steering locked up. He was breathalysed and gave a reading of zero, and an examination of the car found it had a defective tyre.

Jeremy Lawton, mitigating, said the legal highs belonged to the passenger. He added the defendant would lose his job if he was sent to custody.

As part of the suspended sentence Lawton must complete a rehabilitation activity requirement for 10 days and a four month electronically-monitored curfew from 10pm to 5am.

Judge Paul Glenn said: “You had consumed a canister of nitrous oxide. That often results in short-lived feelings of euphoria.

“You suggested the steering was faulty but no such defect was found on examination. The reality is you were driving too fast and beyond your capability.

“You struck the pensioner. He sustained injuries. He was in hospital for four days. His poor wife witnessed this. It must have been awful.

“I am satisfied you are remorseful. You are very lucky you are not facing a more serious charge.”

Lawton, right, of Redwing Drive, Biddulph, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and was given a nine month sentence in a young offenders institution, suspended for 18 months.

Lawton was also banned from driving for 18 months and must take an extended test before he can drive again. He was ordered to pay £1,200 costs.