A hit-and-run driver who left a badly-injured cyclist lying in the road has been jailed.

Magistrates heard that Darren Hodgson drove away after the collision in Bowling Back Lane, Bradford, and abandoned his car in a secluded spot nearby.

He handed himself in to the police eight days later, after reading in the Telegraph & Argus about the life-threatening head injuries suffered by 24-year-old Paul Lupton.

Hodgson, 25, of Wakefield Road, Dudley Hill, Bradford, pleaded guilty to careless driving, failing to stop after an accident and failing to report it.

He also admitted driving with excess alcohol and without insurance three months after the accident.

Bradford magistrates yesterday jailed him for 84 days and banned him from driving for 16 months.

The court was told that Mr Lupton spent several weeks in intensive care following the collision on January 19.

On April 23, while on police bail, Hodgson was breath-tested after his car collided with the back of a taxi in Thornton Road and was found to be almost twice the drink-drive limit.

Paul Milner, mitigating, said the collision with the cyclist was a "nightmare scenario we all dread". Most people would take their eye off the road for a moment and get away with it, but his client had not.

There was a child's toy in the footwell of the car and he was trying to move it out of the way when, all of a sudden, there was a cyclist in front of him.

The rider had borrowed the bike from a teenage girl, said Mr Milner. She pointed out that it had a puncture, but he had told her: "I am going to play chicken."

"While my sympathy goes out to him for his injuries, he was riding a rusty pedal cycle that had a flat tyre and no lights," said Mr Milner.

Hodgson drove on, as his partner and children were in the car and the children were screaming because of the incident.

"It was the agony of the moment," said Mr Milner. "He looks back and sees there is at least one other person, if not two, at the scene.

"He panics and drives away - he doesn't leave the scene believing there is no-one to look after the complainant."

Mr Milner said it did weigh heavily on Hodgson's mind and conscience and the day before he surrendered himself he had made inquiries with the police and seen the T&A front page story in a newsagent's.

"He was even more determined to resolve things when he saw the article," said Mr Milner.

Mr Lupton suffered injuries including a blood clot on his brain, lung damage and a neck injury.

At one point doctors only gave him a 50 per cent chance of survival and his mother Linda Murgatroyd, 42, of Hall Lane, East Bowling, and her family kept a vigil at his bedside at Leeds General Infirmary.

Mr Lupton said his injuries had shattered his life, destroying relationships with his family and his girlfriend - forcing him to sleep rough in shop doorways.

He said: "Some days I wish I'd never come out of hospital. I'm not the same as I used to be. I can't cope with this life, with the pain and wondering where I'll get my next sandwich and next night's sleep."

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