THE wife of a man who was left with devastating injuries by a dangerous driver has told how her family’s lives have been changed forever.

Rebecca Taylor says she was shocked when she learnt 41-year-old Gilbert Chendjou-Tamba had driven to work just hours after a judge gave him a suspended prison sentence and banned him from the roads for four years.

Vernacare worker Chendjou-Tamba had been found guilty of causing serious injury by dangerous driving following a collision between his Toyota Corolla and Karl Taylor’s motorbike at 11.30pm on May 7 last year.

He had tried to overtake a lorry without checking the road ahead was clear and hit Mr Taylor’s Yamaha, leaving him with severe head and other injuries.

Mrs Taylor was expecting her lorry driver husband back from work but instead she got a knock on the door from police and she rushed to hospital where Mr Taylor was fighting for his life.

“We were told that he might not make it,” she said.

But despite horrendous injuries, Mr Taylor, an ex-serviceman who served in the Fusiliers and then as a Lance Corporal in the Signals, survived.

“He was in the Army for 16 years so it must have stood him in good stead,” said Mrs Taylor, aged 36.

However, although he is now back at his Westhoughton home with his wife and their 16-year-old son Ryan, he still needs visits from nurses several times a week, is almost blind in one eye, cannot walk without support, finds speech difficult and has irreversible brain damage.

Not only can Mr Taylor not remember anything about the collision, but he has no recollection of his childhood, his army career, how to drive or even his own wedding day four years ago.

“It has changed our lives forever,” said Mrs Taylor.

“Karl is still having rehabilitation and we just don’t know what lies ahead in the future.”

The couple had been looking forward to celebrating Karl’s 40th birthday with a dream holiday to Las Vegas, but that had to be cancelled following the collision.

Mrs Taylor says she finds it “unbelievable” that father-of-four Chendjou-Tamba, of Langley Drive, Deane, left court last month after receiving an 18 month suspended prison sentence and drove again.

“His life hadn’t changed at all, but ours has,” she said.

Mrs Taylor sat through part of the trial at Bolton Crown Court, but said that she had been satisfied with the guilty verdict and had not wanted Chendjou-Tamba to go to jail.

"At the time we just wanted the right verdict. We weren't bothered about him going to prison because we thought he was remorseful,” she said.

However she added that she was “completely thrown” when she learnt that had driven to work the day after being sentenced.

"Part of being remorseful is facing up to the consequences of your actions,” said Mrs Taylor.

“He dragged us through the whole court process, which was painful enough, and this has just brought it all back.

"I am shocked because he came across as an honest man."

On Friday Judge Timothy Stead sent the Cameroon-born driver to prison for 18 months after he admitted driving while banned and breaching his suspended sentence.

Despite the ordeal Chendjou-Tamba has put her family through Mrs Taylor says they feel no bitterness towards him.

“We have never had any hate for him,” she said.

“I have still got my husband and I need to make the most of that.”