Banned driver who left friend for dead after horror crash is jailed

Mark Wohler was at the wheel of a Ford Fusion which spun out of control on Bickershaw Lane, Abram, at such speed that after smashing into parked cars, it then rotated through the air to demolish a house’s garage and end up on its roof.

The collision badly injured passenger Christopher Rigby, but Wigan magistrates heard that instead of tending to the unconscious and bleeding casualty, the 35-year-old scrambled out and into the car against which he had been racing.

Firefighters cut Mr Rigby from the vehicle and he was taken to Salford Royal Hospital where his condition was at first feared to be life-threatening. He suffered a fractured pelvis, multiple rib fractures, a collapsed lung and contusion, broken right arm which needed two metal plates, a 2ins gash over one eye and a 4ins laceration over an ear. He has no recollection of the October 6 collision nor of the two days before it.

The hearing was told that Wohler - who has also gone variously by the name Wahler, Wolller, Wholer and Colin Boyce - knew he shouldn’t have been driving, having continuously been banned from the road for 8 years. He had been convicted of dangerous driving in 2001 and told then that once he had served his disqualification he would have to take an extended re-test. But this he never did and was subsequently caught again in 2007 for driving while banned and hit with a further disqualification.

The hearing was told that the black Fusion was stolen from King Street, Leigh, at 12.40am on October 6, the owner having nipped into a pizza takeaway and left his keys in the ignition.

At 4am Wohler and Mr Rigby got into the car in Glebe Street and they and a Volkswagen Golf began driving around local streets at speeds far in excess of the 30mph limit.

The race came to an abrupt end after four miles when Wohler lost control. The court heard it careered onto the footpath on the opposite side of Bickershaw Lane, along a grass verge and collided with several parked cars. The vehicle then spun through the air and smashed into the side of a house, landing upside down.

Wohler abandoned his stricken friend and got into the Golf which drove off at speed.

Police were later able to track the vehicles’ journey using CCTV. Wohler was arrested the next day at Wigan Infirmary after presenting himself there as a patient.

He pleaded guilty to driving while disqualified and when not insured, of failing to stop after an accident and failing to report it to police.

Jailing him for a total of six months, the chair of the bench told Wohler, currently of HMP Berwyn in Wrexham: “This was a very serious incident and both your driving and your subsequent conduct was appalling. You left your friend in the passenger seat of a crashed vehicle.”

Wohler was also banned from driving for a further two years and ordered to pay a £122 surcharge.

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