A teenager who has not passed his driving test, crashed an uninsured car leaving his friend ‘gravely injured’ in the middle of the road as he ran off.
Zaheer Patel,18, picked up a friend at 3.30am after messaging her to see if she wanted to go for a drive.
Minutes later crashed the car into a kerb and telegraph pole, rolling the car several times before it came to rest on its roof.
Patel from Vicarage Garden, Humberstone, was driving a Peugeot 206 that he shared with friends, on Thurncourt Road.
The girl in the passenger seat was who was not wearing a seatbelt shoot out of the car and left ‘gravely injured’ in the road.
The crash which happened in the early hours of December 5, 2018, were revealed as Patel appeared at Leicester Magistrates Court and pleaded guilty to several driving offences including leaving the scene of an accident, driving with no insurance and driving without due care and attention.
Sally Bedford, prosecuting said that after the crash, Patel ran off.
An hour-and-a-half later he turned up at her house to apologise to her parents, who had already been contacted by police.
The girl suffered severe multiple injuries including a bleed to the brain, broken jaw which required a metal plate, broken arm which had to be pinned and plated, stitches in her arm, two broken ribs, a burst lung and multiple lacerations and bruising all over her body.
Representing Patel, Paul Tubb said: “He said to me ‘I’ve hurt a lot of people, my friend and her family, I feel for what they are going through. And my family too.
“He said it was such a stupid decision, the worst decision he has ever made.
“He is very remorseful and sorry for what he did.”
The chairperson of the magistrates bench said: “You’re going to have to live with this for the rest of your life and it’s a very large learning point that you’ve got to stay with you.
“Mr Tubb said you told him that it was the worst decision of your life, I think the worst decision you ever made was getting involved with that car in the first place.
“I suspect whatever we say to you, you’ve heard before and probably worse from your parents, but here you are and we have to decide what to do with you.
“Failing to stop is the most serious charge and although we accept you stayed with this young woman until paramedics arrived, you then left.
The magistrates gave Patel a 12 month community order and sentenced him to carry out 200 hours unpaid work that will start after he has completed his upcoming A level exams.
Patel’s licence, which is currently a provisional, will be endorsed for having no insurance.
He was also handed a £120 fine for driving without due care and attention and ordered to pay an £85 victim surcharge and £85 costs.
No compensation was awarded to the victim as there is an ongoing civil case.
