A FATHER crashed his car through a fence and into a garden then left the scene, failing to tell the homeowner what had happened.

Janis Buls crashed his Seat Leon through the garden in Broadway Road, Hinton on the Green, near Evesham but did not bother to tell the householder or the police.

The 28-year-old of Lower Leys, Evesham, admitted careless driving, failing top stop at the scene of an accident and failing to report that accident when he appeared at Worcester Magistrates Court on Monday following the crash on February 25 at 2.40am.

Jackie Rogers, prosecuting, said: "The witness said she was asleep at her home address when she was woken by the noise of a car crashing through the fence in front of her house. She was scared to go out and asked a family friend to go with her."

Police were then called who could not locate Buls in the area. They eventually found him after tracing the registered keeper of the car where he admitted being the owner and the driver at the time of the crash. He told police he had been showing a friend around the area when the accident happened. Mrs Rogers said: "He said he didn't know the road very well. He said 'as I came to the junction and I braked the car skidded across the main road, into the box and through the fence and into the garden. It was raining and the road was wet'."

After the accident he said he walked around for a bit before going to a friend's. Mrs Rogers said: "He accepted at no time had he tried to advise the people who live in the house of what had happened. He was asked if drink was involved and he said 'no'."

Buls is a man of previous good character with no previous convictions.

Buls, who represented himself, was asked by the district judge Nigel Cadbury if he wanted to say anything about what happened but he said: "No - there is nothing I would like to say."

Mr Cadbury, who gave Buls full credit for his early guilty pleas, said: "This was really serious. You caused damage to someone else's property in the middle of the night and didn't stop to tell them about it and give your details. In those cases there is always a suspicion that drink might have been involved. The police did see you that morning and there is no suggestion of that at that time. I'm prepared to accept you were not drinking to excess. There is no evidence of you having been drinking and you need your licence to get to work."

His licence will be endorsed with nine penalty points. He was fined him £160 for driving without due care and attention, £240 for failing to stop and ordered him to pay £85 costs and a £24 victim surcharge.