Car smashes into takeaway after 80mph police chase
A DISQUALIFIED driver left a mother believing she was going to die after ploughing into a Chinese takeaway, a court has heard.
Horrifying footage showed the moment Lewis Cadogan, 31, smashes through the window of the Man Po takeaway after a 80mph police chase in Ely, Cardiff.
On Friday, Newport Crown Court heard the spice and crack cocaine user had been driving his former partner’s Vauxhall Astra after she gave him the keys to get the tyres changed on June 8, 2018.
But Cadogan failed to pull over when spotted by police on Grand Avenue, and led a high-speed pursuit, overtaking stationary cars at traffic lights before hitting the establishment on the opposite site of the carriageway.
The court heard customer Gemma Richards had been ordering food on her daughter’s birthday when the car smashed through the takeaway window on Cowbridge Road West.
Leah Pollard, prosecuting, said: “[Ms Richards] could hear a noise described as a screeching car. The noise was so loud it was unbelievable. The sound was getting closer and closer before the car went through the concrete beams and the shop window.
“The only thing she could do was put her head in her hands and wait for the car to hit. She thought she was going to die.”
Ms Richards was later taken to hospital suffering from a seizure related to shock, bruises to her hip, stomach and right leg, and tissue damage in her right ankle.
Reading her victim impact statement in court, she said: “I have been having flashbacks about the incident a few times a week. There is no warning. Everything around me feels like a danger. Every time I am in the car I feel overwhelmed. I don’t let my kids play in the front garden any more because of the cars going down the street.
“It has wrecked my life. Some days I have said I think I wish he had killed me that day, I live it over and over, again and again and I feel I am never going to get over it.”
The court heard Cadogan fled the scene and was arrested at his former partner Kayleigh Carey’s house the following day. After being granted bail, he was later arrested for threatening Ms Carey and friend Brianna Tobin in a series of phone calls between February 13-18, 2019.
Before the hearing, Cadogan, of Morris Finer Close, Ely, pleaded guilty to damaging property, dangerous driving and assault occasioning actual bodily harm towards Ms Richards. He also pleaded guilty to breaching a restraining order in relation to Kayleigh Carey, and sending malicious communications to Ms Carey and Brianna Tobin.
He was sentenced to eight years and three months in prison, half of which will be served in custody before being released on licence.