A drunk teenager took his dad’s £100,000 Audi and smashed into the side of a house before calmly walking home to tell his parents: “I’ve just crashed your car.”
Reckless Harry Bishop, 19, was more than twice the drink-drive limit when he ploughed the high-powered sports car into the detached property at 4.30am on May 2.
Magistrates heard the teenager had taken the keys to his dad’s white Audi R8 without permission from their home in the leafy Four Oaks area of Sutton Coldfield, West Mids.
But the IT apprentice had barely travelled 100 metres when he lost control of the vehicle and careered into the house of pensioners Harold and Janet Perry.
Bishop then calmly strolled back to his family home and told his dad Martin “I have just crashed your car into a house”.
The pair then returned to the scene and Mr Bishop, 46, told police his son didn’t have permission to drive the Audi.
Bishop was arrested and when breathalysed he was found to have 83 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath – more than twice the legal limit of 35.
On Thursday (14/5) the teenager admitted driving a motor vehicle while above the alcohol limit when he appeared at Birmingham Magistrates Court.
Bishop, who lives in a £393,000 detached house in Four Oaks, also pleaded guilty to using a motor vehicle without insurance and taking it without the consent of the owner.
District Judge Lesley Mottram described the crash as a “very serious matter” and gave Bishop unconditional bail to appear at Birmingham Crown Court on June 26.
The judge also made an interim order banning him from driving until the next hearing.
The court heard £5,000 worth of damage had been caused after the white sports ploughed through a fence and wall before smashing into the porch.
Prosecutor Shahzad Imam said damage to the property was still being assessed by structural engineers but the front door had been completely destroyed.
He added: “On May 1 this year the defendant’s father Martin Bishop had left the car keys down stairs and had gone to bed.
“At around 4.30am occupiers of an address in Hill Hook Road, Four Oaks, Harold and Janet Perry, were awoken by a loud sound and saw the Audi had crashed into the front of their house.
“They saw the defendant, who got out of the driver’s door and a lady passenger get out and walk away.
“At about 5am Martin Bishop was awoken by the defendant who told him ‘I have just crashed your car into a house.”
Speaking after the horror smash, pensioners Harold and Janet told how they were asleep in their bedroom less than 2ft from where the Audi landed.
Grandad-of-one Mr Perry, 72, a retired electrical contractor, said: “It was quite a bang. I thought a bomb had gone off.
“We looked out of the window and saw this white car was next to the house sideways onto the pavement.
“We could see a man and a woman inside and my wife called out, ‘Are you all right?’ and they didn’t answer so we rang the police and went downstairs.”
The couple, who have lived in the house 10 years after having it built for them, said it was by sheer luck they had only renewed their buildings insurance a week earlier.
Mr Perry added: “I’ve been on the phone to the insurance company and they’re sending someone round later today to look at the damage.
“But we reckon the whole front section of the house will have to be re-built because the impact of the car has left cracks in the structure and pushed it slightly out of shape.
“The accident also pushed the front door in and demolished the fence.”
Mrs Perry, 71, a retired bookkeeper, added “We were told by the police that the man who was driving the car only lived around the corner and went home but then came back.
“This is a busy road with a 30mph limit.
“They were coming up the road and must have lost control, spun round and ended up sideways in our house.””
Neighbour Corinne Mander, 55, a director of a heating company, said: “It sounded like a bomb going off. My next door neighbour thought a train had crashed.
“It was really, really loud. He walked away so he wasn’t hurt.”
