‘Foolish and criminal’
Cameron Rogers leaving Manchester Crown Court(Image: Manchester Evening News)
A man without a driving licence or insurance made a ‘foolish and criminal’ decision to get behind the wheel of his partner’s car – before fleeing after hitting a nurse.
Cameron Rogers, 26, lost control of the vehicle before mounting the pavement and smashing into a lamppost in Wythenshawe. A court heard he hit a mental health nurse walking home from work.
Handing him a suspended sentence, a judge told Rogers: “It should be to your eternal shame that you left the victim of your behaviour in the road.”
Manchester Crown Court heard the nurse was walking home from a ‘tiring and hard shift of difficult work’ at 10.30pm on January 6, 2023. Before he crossed the road at the junction with Poundswick Land and Gladeside Road, he looked both ways.
Sign up to the MEN Court newsletter here
“He walked across the road and the next thing he was unconscious,” prosecutor Hugh Barton said. “When he woke up he heard people saying ‘he’s alive’. He noticed a white car had crashed into a lamppost.”
Emergency services were called and quickly located Rogers’ dad, who confirmed he was a passenger and his son was driving the car. Rogers, from Wythenshawe, later attended the police station and confirmed he had been driving.
The nurse was kept overnight in hospital and was treated for injuries including a fractured humerus and a dislocated shoulder.
In a statement he said he had a fear of crossing the road and was ‘devastated’ to learn that the driver left the scene and didn’t come to his aid ‘when one might have expected him to do so’.
Cameron Rogers leaving Manchester Crown Court(Image: Manchester Evening News)
The court heard Rogers told police he was driving his partner’s car without her permission, was not insured and didn’t have a full licence.
Amy Weir, defending, said: “He wasn’t in possession of a full driving licence nor was he insured. The defendant is extremely remorseful.”
She added that the offences were ‘out of character’ and despite a difficult background, he had a stable home life with a young family.
Join our Court and Crime WhatsApp group HERE
Rogers pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
Sentencing, Judge Sarah Johnston said: “On January 6 2023, you made the very foolish and criminal decision to get behind the wheel of your partner’s car.
“It was foolish and criminal as you didn’t have a driving licence and were not insured to drive that vehicle and you didn’t have permission of your partner to drive it.”
Rogers, of Mendip Avenue, Wythenshawe, was jailed for a year and four months, suspended for 18 months. He was ordered to carry out 80 hours of unpaid work and five rehabilitation activity requirement days. He was also banned from driving for two-and-a-half years.