A DRINK driver who swerved into a cyclist and fled the scene before hiding at his mother’s home lacked “the grace and decency” to stop and help the severely injured commuter.

Benjamin Bond, 29, ploughed his Toyota SUV into hard-working commuter Jayan Chandy in an early morning hit-and-run in Cowdray Avenue, Colchester.

Ipswich Crown Court heard he had been drinking following a row with an ex-partner and was on his way to his mother’s home in Stanway at about 6am on March 3.

Emma Nash, prosecuting, said as the road split into two lanes, Bond merged into the right hand lane as he approached Mr Chandy from behind.

But suddenly “and with no apparent explanation at all”, he swerved sharply to the left, striking Mr Chandy, flinging him into the air and over the SUV.

Mr Chandy suffered serious injuries requiring extensive hospital treatment, including six broken ribs, a broken collarbone and broken teeth.

Bond was located two hours later, hiding in outbuildings at his mother’s home in Stanway.

A breath test was carried out which revealed Bond had 71mcg of alcohol in 100ml of breath. The legal limit is 35mcg.

Mr Chandy said his injuries had left him unable to hug his three-year-old son and his family facing a huge financial crisis as he had been unable to work.

Ms Nash said: “They had been saving up money to buy a home, they are now using that money to pay for day-to-day bills.”

Hugh Vass, mitigating, said the victim was completely blameless, but added his client had learned a “salutary lesson from his brush with the criminal justice system”.

He said: “It does appear things got on top of him, domestic matters and drinking.

“Clearly he does feel genuine remorse.

“He is truly ashamed of his behaviour, which resulted in such distress for Mr Chandy and his family.”

Bond, of Winstree Road, Stanway, admitted causing serious injury by dangerous driving, drink driving, and failing to stop at the scene of a collision.

Jailing him for two years, Judge Emma Peters said: “On that morning at the start of March this year, two people were on the roads of Colchester amongst others.

“One of them was Mr Chandy, a hard-working man on his bike on his way to the station to go to work to take care of his family.

“A man who got on his bike that morning expecting to go to work, earn his hard day’s pay and come home safe to his family again.”

Judge Peters said Bond had been involved in an argument with an ex-partner and had been drinking through “quite a lot of the night and certainly into the morning”.

“When you are twice over the limit, you are not in control of that vehicle,” she said.

She said Bond’s act of driving away from the seriously injured Mr Chandy was “the final insult”.

She said: “The fact you say the noise of the collision still lives with you, yet you didn’t even have the grace and decency to stop.”

She added: “People need to know when they get into a car, onto a bike, or indeed step onto a pavement, that other road users will be taking care – a care they owe to their fellow road users.”

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