A TEENAGE driver who left a 73-year-old woman with devastating injuries has been spared immediate custody by a judge who said the victim “had not an ounce of vengeance in her heart.”

Muhammed Bostan struck Carol Shaw on the pavement when he lost control of a black Volkswagen Passat and plunged through a garden fence on Hunters Park Avenue, Clayton, Bradford, shortly after 9.30am on July 13 last year. Mrs Shaw suffered a fractured spine, rib, pelvis, legs and arm. She spent more than a month in hospital and a further four weeks in a nursing home, Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday.

Bostan, 19, of Sandringham Court, Clayton, Bradford, pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

He was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment, suspended for two years, with 250 hours of unpaid work, and banned from driving for three years.

Bostan was 18 at the time he injured Mrs Shaw and had passed his driving test about a month before, prosecutor Jeremy Hill-Baker said.

He was going at an inappropriate speed for the narrow, bendy road when he met a car coming the other way and lost control of his vehicle when he swerved to avoid it. Mrs Shaw was struck from behind and dragged under the car. Eye-witnesses spoke of her being flung through the air “like a rag doll.”

Mrs Shaw, a keen gardener who attended keep fit and art classes, was treated in the high dependency unit at Leeds General Infirmary. Her injuries included a bleed on the brain and she feared she might lose a leg. She had several operations and her leg was in a metal frame for months. In a statement read to the court, Mrs Shaw said she could no longer walk anywhere without help and was ordering a mobility scooter. Her garden was being adapted for her to tend. Alisdair Campbell, Bostan’s barrister, said he admitted being the driver at the crash scene and had expressed genuine remorse. He was an inexperienced driver who panicked.

Judge Jonathan Rose asked Mrs Shaw, who was present in court, for her views on the sentence to be passed. Mr Hill-Baker said she respected the view of the court and was willing to meet Bostan to tell him face to face of the impact of his actions.

“She is not seeking vengeance. She just wants you to understand the harm that you have caused,” Judge Rose told Bostan.