Cocaine-taking Peugeot driver jailed for pavement hit-and-run of Wakefield pensioner

Connor Fearnley quickly drove off from the scene and continues to claim he did not realise he struck the elderly man, despite damage to the front of his car, windscreen and his airbags being deployed.

The man was airlifted to hospital and was detained for weeks as he recovered from multiple injuries.

Fearnley was jailed at Leeds Crown Court this week after he admitted a charge of causing serious injury through dangerous driving.

The 32-year-old had turned up for a late shift at the business park in Knottingley at around 10pm on April 19 last year, prosecutor Harriet Eglinton told the court.

He appeared to be intoxicated and was ordered to go away and get something to eat, which he did.

Moments later while driving along Pontefract Road, he lost control of his silver Peugeot 307, veered towards a bollard in the middle of the road before mounting the kerb.

He struck the male who had been walking home along the pavement, pinning him against a stone wall. It happened near to the Esso garage.

Fearnley then drove off without checking on the man, who is in his 70s and was left lying in the road.

Fearnley then hit a wall outside Hill Top Pharmacy a short distance away on Headlands Lane.

The police stopped him and he appeared unsteady on his feet and was slurring his speech.

He was given a road-side drug swipe test, which showed he had cocaine in his system. He later took a blood test and was found to be under the legal limit for cocaine.

The victim was taken to hospital suffering with a bleed to the brain, a fractured shoulder blade and leg, a wound to his scalp and blockages in his lung. He was in hospital until May 6.

Fearnley, of Station Road, Ryhill, Wakefield, was arrested, interviewed and denied he was responsible. He said he thought he had clipped a kerb and minutes later pulled over.

He said he was sticking to the speed limit, did not think his driving was dangerous, never saw the pedestrian at any point and denied taking cocaine.

Forensics found strands of the victim’s hair in the smashed window of his Peugeot, the court heard.

It was also heard that he has since been caught drug-driving while high on cocaine.

Mitigating, Charles Creasey said: “He is struggling to come to terms with what happened that day. The remorse I have seen is indicative of the fact that it’s really hit the defendant to what has happened.

“He presents as a broken man. He has brought a bag [of clothes]. He is prepared for what will happen.”

Fearnley turned to drugs as a coping mechanism and since then his life had “effectively fallen in to total collapse”, Mr Creasey said, having lost his job and then spiralled into depression.

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Judge Ray Singh rejected the claims of remorse, saying that Fearnley continues to minimise his actions. He said he does not believe “for one moment” he did not see the pedestrian or failed to notice he had struck him.

He also rejected claims the area was not lit well enough.

He said: “You did not care about the injuries you caused. You were simply looking after yourself.

“Your only saving grace is that you have accepted you are guilty of the offence.”

He jailed him for 26 months and banned him from driving for more than four years. He must take an extended re-test to get his licence back.