A BEAUTICIAN panicked after hitting a man with her car and driving off, leaving him with a fractured skull.

Ashleigh Sloan, 27, was driving in Berechurch Hall Road, Colchester, when Alan Taylor-Reid stepped out in front of her.

She hit him with the wing mirror of her Peugeot 206, causing it to snap off.

Colchester Magistrates’ Court heard she did not stop or report the incident, on December 8, at 10.20pm.

Police searched the area and found the car with damage consistent with Mr Taylor-Reid’s injuries.

Sloan, of Fowler Road, Colchester, initially denied knowing anything about the incident. However, two days later, she gave police a full interview.

She said she was driving and saw a group of men on the pavement.

A man stepped into the road and she was unable to swerve because a car was coming in the opposite direction. She said she panicked and drove home.

She admitted failing to stop at the scene and failing to report an accident when she appeared at court yesterday.

Matthew Swash, mitigating, said: “She’ll have to live with herself that she didn’t report this.”

Nicholas Chilvers, chairman of the bench, told Sloan she had given police the runaround.

She was fined £350 and ordered to pay £120 costs, and her driving licence was endorsed with nine points.

Philip Pearson, prosecuting, said: “It would seem the gentleman had been drinking at the pub with some friends.

“The group were walking along the pavement and crossed at the pedestrian crossing. The victim, without looking, appears to have stepped out in the road.

“He suffered a significant injury. The police information is he was taken to hospital and had a fractured skull and bleeding to the brain.”