Drink driver banned after crashing into village home (From Cotswold Journal)

Welford-on-Avon car crash into house

1:22pm Thursday 18th October 2012 in News

A DRINK driver whose car ended up embedded in an historic village home causing major structural damage, has been banned from driving.

Grant Banton, aged 22, of Albion Terrace, Broom, near Bidford, pleaded guilty at Warwickshire magistrates court in Leamington Spa to driving with excess alcohol and driving without insurance after the crash in High Street, Welford-on-Avon.

Banton was fined £450, ordered to pay £85 costs and a £15 victim surcharge, and was banned from driving for 20 months.

Prosecutor Pam Meinert said that at 10.30pm on September 29, Banton, who had three points on his licence for speeding, was driving a Volkswagen Golf along Barton Road in Welford.

“He approached the ‘give way’ junction with High Street at speed and was unable to come to a stop; and the vehicle went straight across and collided badly with the property opposite the junction. Such was the force of the impact that it caused massive structural damage.”

The car was wedged so far into the cottage that it could not be pulled out for fear that part of the building would collapse.

The car was finally removed after structural engineers had made the building safe. Miss Meinert said that Banton’s passengers suffered head injuries and a broken arm, for which they needed hospital treatment.

Banton was breathalysed by police and gave a reading of 69 - just under double the legal limit of 35.

Banton told magistrates: “I would just like to say there are not a lot of words in my vocabulary to express how sorry I am. I apologise to the owners of the cottage. I am normally a sensible person. I made a stupid mistake of judgement.”

Banton will also take part in a drink-driver rehabilitation course which could reduce his ban by five months.