A MORFA Nefyn pensioner who crashed his car into a first floor bathroom, leaving the vehicle dangling over a 20-foot drop below, has been banned from driving.

Magistrates told defendant Geoff Ludden that it was a very serious offence and, despite the consequences of a driving ban for him and his disabled son, they had to protect the public.

Ludden, 69, of Lon Terfyn, lost control of his mobility vehicle and crashed into the first-floor bathroom of a house which was at street level.

It ended up dangling 20 feet over a walkway between the road and the house it crashed into and he had to be rescued by firefighters through the rear door, explained prosecutor Shaun Bartlett-Evans.

The defendant admitted careless driving and was banned from driving for three months, fined £250 with £85 costs and ordered to pay a £30 surcharge.

Magistrates said that it was a serious offence which could have had catastrophic consequences.

Fortunately there were no serious injuries.

The defendant said that he had not been told that his driving licence had been made the subject of a medical stop by the DVLA and that he had been driving since the incident.

But he told the court that he was due to have a driving appraisal the following week.

The prosecutor told how the Peugeot automatic which was adapted for his son’s wheelchair – his son David had cerebral palsy – crashed through shrubbery into the property in Cesail y Bryn, Pwllheli at 11pm on Monday, 18 September.

The vehicle was left balancing between the retaining wall and the house wall the vehicle was embedded in. Substantial damage had been caused.

At the time the defendant was due to pick up his son, and was turning around, when he lost control.

The driver was taken to hospital and it took an hour to make the vehicle safe. It was left in position and removed in daylight the following day. The defendant suffered extensive bruising.

Ludden represented himself and said he pleaded guilty because there was no-one else in the van and he was guilty.

“I lost control of the vehicle,” he said.

It was only later that he realised that his right foot was partly on the brake and partly on the accelerator.

“I was not braking at all. I just carried on. I could not control the vehicle quickly enough,” he said.

“The next thing I knew I had hit the wall.”

Ludden told how he opened the driver’s door, looked down and saw the drop, and closed the door again.

“I put my belt back on and waited for the emergency services,” he said.

He suffered massive bruising and was in shock for three days.