A DRIVER jailed for seriously injuring a taxi passenger in a crash had been racing another car, a court heard.

Tony Hamar fled the scene of the crash at the junction of Plodder Lane and Harper Green Road, Farnworth and the next day tried to report his Vauxhall Astra as stolen.

Bolton Crown Court heard how Derek Conway, a passenger in a Skoda taxi hit by Hamar’s car, was flung through the rear window into the road and suffered injuries including fractured ribs, pelvis, leg and a lacerated spleen.

Hamar, aged 34, of Tonge Moor Road, Bolton, pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving, attempting to pervert the couse of justice and failing to stop after an accident and was jailed for three years.

Judge Elliot Knopf also banned him from holding a driving licence for four and a half years.

Victim's mum urged driver to own up

The court heard that Hamar had been at the Three Crowns pub in Higher Market Street on the Sunday evening before getting into an Astra and racing another driver in a Range Rover through Farnworth, sometimes on the wrong side of the road and at speeds described as “motorway speed”.

At 8.35pm Hamar was on Plodder Lane and attempted to speed through a red light, hitting a Skoda passing through the junction from Harper Green Road, sending it spinning.

Hamar’s car smashed into a wall and he fled to the Five Star car wash on Plodder Lane and climbed over a wall into Openshaw Place from where a Range Rover was seen driving away shortly afterwards. Hamar was arrested after trying to claim his car had been stolen.