Trail of destruction after car ploughs through garden where kids had been playing

[dutchman]

Fences, sheds and a trampoline were flattened by the car in the Coundon area of Coventry



This was the trail of destruction after a car ploughed through a garden where young children had been playing minutes earlier.

An iron gate, fences, sheds and a trampoline were flattened by the car in Scots Lane in the Coundon area of Coventry on Tuesday night.

Some residents claimed the driver had been trying to get away from the police at the time.

After smashing through the gardens the car drove off.

Eleonor Smith’s children had been playing in one of the gardens just minutes before.

She told the Telegraph yesterday: “This morning we woke up and counted ourselves very lucky.

“We are all alright and that is the main thing.

“I had just dropped off one of my daughters at dancing and the other at drama club while my other daughter was upstairs.

“I just heard a massive bang.

“The car drove through one side of my fence and then through the other and took everything with them.

“I ran out into the garden and the car had just gone through and disappeared.

“I phoned the police and they were saying to me ‘can you see the car’ and it then occurred to me I couldn’t. The car had completely gone.

“The car had gone straight through iron gates at the end.

“He must have got out the other side.

“My kids had just been playing in the garden and I told them to go and get ready for their classes.

“It could have been a whole different story today.

“My neighbour’s shed has been completely flattened, and he normally potters about in the garden, so it was so lucky for a lot of us.

“The driver was obviously prepared to kill himself and put a lot of other people in danger.”

West Midlands Police has been contacted for a comment.

[dutchman]

Jail for car burglar who ploughed through gardens in terrifying police chase



A burglar who left a trail of devastation when he ploughed through a Coventry garden where young children had been playing has been jailed.

Jay Bennett, 24, of Shulmans Walk, Henley Green, smashed through an iron gate, fences, sheds and a trampoline as he drove through gardens in Coundon in an attempt to escape police.

But he was caught and has now been jailed along with two other men who carried out a campaign of burglaries which netted more than £340,000 across Rugby, Kenilworth, Nuneaton, Bedworth, and Coventry.

The gang were sentenced at Warwick Crown Court on Friday, 8 September, for playing their part in a large scale series of “car and key” burglary offences in homes across Rugby, Nuneaton, Kenilworth and Coventry after admitting conspiracy to commit burglary at an earlier hearing.

The full value of items the group stole was more than £340,000 with high value cars and designer watches being taken.

Jay Bennett, 24, of Shulmans Walk, Henley Green, Coventry, was sentenced to seven years for two counts of conspiracy to burgle, and two incidents of dangerous driving. He was also banned from driving for a year and until an extended test passed, to be activated upon his release.

His brother, Gez Bennett, 21, of Shulmans Walk in Coventry was sentenced to four years for one count of conspiracy to burgle and an attempted burglary dwelling.

Tony Barrett, 22, of Lutterworth Road in Nuneaton was sentenced to four years six months for one count of conspiracy to burgle and theft of a BMW car.