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Drug-driver smashed BMW through pensioner’s bungalow while high on cocaine

A drug driver who deliberately smashed his BMW into a pensioner’s bungalow in an attempt to kill himself after assaulting his girlfriend has been jailed.

Michael Vose, 40,  got behind the wheel of his BMW following a vicious row with his girlfriend in which he attempted to throttle her before punching a hole in the wall instead.

Mr Vose, who was well over the alcohol limit, grabbed his car keys and said he was going to kill himself before speeding off into the night.

He drove over a mini roundabout before smashing through a fence and into a bungalow in Westhoughton, Bolton.

The car crashed through a wall and ended up in the bedroom of 92-year-old Edna Kearns, who was left badly injured 

The vehicle smashed into Mrs Kearns’ bed, leaving her with two fractured ankles and severe cuts to her legs. 

Edna, an ex-civil servant, was flung from her bed and rushed to hospital following the collision.

She later died from an unrelated illness in hospital, having never returned home after the horror crash.

Vose ignored her cries for help following the crash and stumbled away from the wreckage, eventually getting picked up by police after he was spotted walking down the middle of a dual carriageway with swollen hands and ‘significant’ cuts to the head.

Bolton Crown Court heard how Vose, previously on a £60,000 salary as a construction manager, had got into his car after assaulting his former girlfriend.

Sentencing him to four years in jail, Judge Martin Walsh told the defendant he had made a ‘conscious decision’ to smash into the pensioner’s home.

He said: ‘A conscious decision was taken to drive the vehicle aggressively when you were heavily intoxicated with alcohol and cocaine.

‘Mrs Kearns very sadly died on April 8, she never returned to her home.’

Alistair Reid, prosecuting, told Bolton Crown Court how an argument broke out in the early hours of the morning when Vose woke his girlfriend following a night of boozing to accuse her of cheating on him.

During the row, Vose grabbed her by the neck and throttled her in her own bedroom.

After breaking free from his grip, the woman managed to force him out of her bedroom, calling the police for help.

Upon hearing the call, Vose got behind the wheel of his BMW X6 despite being more than double the drink drive limit and almost five times over the driving limit for cocaine and said he was going to take his own life.

Speaking in court, Judge Martin Walsh said: ‘You got into your BMW X6 highly intoxicated and drove the vehicle across a mini roundabout, through a fence, and into a bungalow. You crashed straight through the wall of the bungalow into the bedroom of 92-year-old Edna Kearns, the vehicle collided with the victim’s bed.

‘There was extensive damage caused to the house, as can be seen in the photographs.

‘You walked away from the scene, the fire service has to remove rubble in order to free Edna Kearns from her bedroom and she was taken to Salford Royal Hospital where she was treated by the trauma team for fractures to both ankles, lacerations to her legs, and extensive trauma.’

In a victim impact statement taken before her death, Mrs Kearns described the pain in her legs as ‘excruciating’ and said that the incident had ‘changed her life forever’. 

Elsewhere in the statement, Edna said she would ‘never be the same person again’.

Vose, who has nine previous convictions for 21 offences, was jailed for four years after pleading guilty to assaulting his girlfriend, causing criminal damage to her flat, causing injury by dangerous driving and causing criminal damage to Edna’s home.

His previous charges including kidnap and blackmail, two counts of driving while disqualified, and one count of driving with excess alcohol, and at the time of sentencing he was still serving a community order for racially aggravated offences.

Mr Reid said Vose had been truly remorseful for what he had done to Edna.

He said: ‘He does not expect forgiveness from the family but he wants it known that if he could turn back time he would do so.’

Judge Walsh also banned Vose from driving for five years, including an extra two years ban to include the time he spends in prison.

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