Sunderland driver slammed over 'appalling' behaviour after collision with Mercedes carrying woman and teenage daughter

Bradley Bute, 21, of Tudor Grove, Plains Farm, was told by a district judge his behaviour following the smash on Friday, March 22, last year, had been “appalling”.

A court heard he smashed into a woman’s white Mercedes A Class as she drove in Suffolk Street with her 13-year-old daughter in the passenger seat.

The woman, whose driver’s side door would not open, looked up to see Bute standing by the passenger door, South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court heard.

But instead of helping her and her shocked child as she expected, he swore at her and shouted: “Get out. Look what you’ve done to my car”.

Prosecutor Lee Poppett said Bute then took off into a William Hill betting shop close by as passers-by warned the woman to get out fast due to liquid spilling from her vehicle.

Mr Poppett said the woman was driving to drop her daughter off in Tower Street, adding: “She knew a bend was coming up and slowed down her vehicle.

“She describes indicating right prior to wanting to turn. Just as she was about to turn, she describes feeling a ‘bang’ on the back of her car, and her car was forced forward.

“She was forced towards the door of the William Hill betting shop. She was shocked and checked on her daughter. She couldn’t open her door.”

Mr Poppett said she then saw Bute at the window, where he shouted the obscenities and walked away.

He described her as telling police: “I was in a panic because I could hear people telling me to get out because there was liquid coming out of the car”.

In a victim personal statement read to the court, the female motorist, who suffered shock but refused to go to hospital, said: “He made me feel very frightened due to his actions towards me and my daughter. Rather than ask me if I was okay, he made threats towards us.

“For weeks and weeks afterwards I had trouble sleeping and continue to have nightmares about what could have happened.”

The court heard Bute had pleaded guilty to a charge of failing to stop after an accident but had denied driving without due care and attention, to which he was found guilty after a trial at Sunderland Magistrates’ Court on January 9.

District Judge Natalie Wortley said it was likely Bute, who works as a driver, would have been breathalysed had he not fled the scene.

In banning him from the roads for six months and giving him a 12-month community order, she said: “After the accident your behaviour was entirely unacceptable.

“Instead of asking if the other driver was okay, you acted appallingly towards her.”

Bute must also complete 225 hours of unpaid work and pay £200 court costs and a £90 victim surcharge.