Dangerous driver who left teenager in coma then went on the run for year is jailed

A speeding driver who left a teenage boy in a coma is finally behind bars after more than a year on the run.Kevin Bernard sped in a black Audi S3 along Southport Road in Bootle at 86mph - nearly three times the speed limit - and hit a Ford Fiesta, driven by Lee Baxter.

He was heading to his 19th birthday party at his mum's house with two friends in his blue.The now 22-year-old was left with brain damage and fighting for his life in a coma.

Mr Baxter's passengers, Sophie Fearnon, 19, and Callum Gallagher, 18, were also taken to hospital after the crash.Ms Fearnon suffered a broken pelvis and bleeding into a lung, while Mr Gallagher sustained minor injuries.

Lee "had to learn how to breathe, talk, walk and eat" again and his personality was dramatically altered after the crash.

Bernard, 44, denied causing serious injury by dangerous driving in the horrific crash, late on Saturday, June 16, 2018.Yet he disappeared in December 2020 and failed to attend his trial last May, when he was found guilty, or his sentencing that July.

Bernard was handed six years in prison in his absence, when a judge also sentenced him for a series of driving related frauds.

The wanted fugitive finally appeared in the dock at Liverpool Crown Court on Thursday 8 April, when he admitted breach of bail.

Callum Ross, prosecuting, said Bernard's failure to surrender involved a "deliberate" attempt to evade or delay justice.Gareth Roberts, defending, said his client, of Riversdale Road, Aigburth, handed himself in at a police station on Monday.

Judge Brian Cummings, QC, gave Bernard two months in jail, to be served consecutively to his existing six-year sentence.

Graham Pickavance, prosecuting, said Mr Baxter's mum described how her son is no longer the same person.He read from a victim impact statement in which Dawn Baxter outlined how she now cares for him while he undergoes extensive physiotherapy, described the change in her son's personality, and how the crash cost him a job he had been due to start.

Bernard has past convictions including assault causing actual bodily harm, assaulting police and producing cannabis.He was stopped by police for driving without insurance on June 11, 2017, for which he was fined and given six penalty points.

However, he went on to apply for insurance on four occasions in his dad's name, putting himself down as a named driver without disclosing his penalty points or convictions.The first three fraudulent applications were in February and March 2018 and related to the Audi he later wrote off in Bootle.

He was convicted on April 16, 2018 of speeding in a HGV and given five penalty points, before the crash on June 16 that year.

Bernard then bought a Mercedes C63 for nearly £19,000 and fraudulently insured it using the same method in August 2018.

He admitted four counts of fraud before he went on the run.Judge Byrne said the case involved "a deliberate decision to ignore or having a flagrant disregard for the rules of the road and an apparent disregard for the great danger of risk being caused to others".

The judge said the maximum sentence for causing serious injuries by dangerous driving was five years in prison.He handed Bernard four years in jail for that offence, but a further two years for the frauds, to be served consecutively.

Judge Byrne banned Bernard from the road for eight years and said he must take an extended retest before driving again.