Driver spared jail after offering to pay £10,000 to victim of crash
AN AEROSPACE engineer who left a father-to-be with a broken back in a hit-and-run road crash has been spared jail after he immediately “expressed remorse” and offered to pay his victim £10,000, a court heard.
Stephen Andrews, 41, caused taxi driver Inam Ulhaq such severe injuries in the horrific head-on impact that the victim was unable to later cradle his newborn child.
Andrews – who mentors BAE recruits and drives 40,000 miles a year – had drunk three pints of lager and lemonade plus whisky before overtaking two cars at up to 50mph and ploughing into Mr Ulhaq’s VW Passat private hire vehicle.
He then drove off into the night in his VW Golf and hid out at a friend’s house before contacting police 12 hours after the crash.
He handed himself in four days later, thereby avoiding a breath test. The incident occurred on Dec 15 last year.
Andrews, a father of two, from Standish near Wigan, Greater Manchester later admitted drinking in the run up to the crash but claimed he had driven away “in complete panic”.
Inquiries revealed he had a previous conviction for drink driving. Mr Ulhaq, who is in his 40s, had to be cut free from his vehicle by firefighters and suffered a broken back, fractured pelvis, dislocated right hip and a broken right knee, and had to undergo several operations. He said: “I can only walk around 10 to 15 steps before the pain is too much for me. Due to this man’s reckless and dangerous driving I truly feel my life has been ruined.
“On June 4, my wife gave birth and it should have been a happy time, but it upsets me that I couldn’t hold the baby properly and carry him and cuddle him and do general playful things with him as any father could do. My injuries prevent me from my normal daily life.’’
At Bolton Crown Court, Andrews faced up to five years jail after he admitted causing serious injury by dangerous driving and failing to stop but he was given 16 months’ jail suspended for two years after Judge Graeme Smith said he posed “no risk” to the public.
Saul Brody, for Andrews, said his client had written a letter of apology to the victim and offered to pay him £10,000 compensation over six months. “His conduct is entirely out of character and it has left him a broken man. He will never behave in this way again.”
Ordering him to pay the compensation within six months, the judge told Andrews: “You have expressed remorse from day one and did that to the police and sent a letter of apology to the victim. You do not pose a risk to the public and are at a low risk of reoffending and are highly unlikely to trouble these courts again.”