A pedestrian was left suffering ‘flashbacks’ after a Newcastle DJ and events boss hit him with his car and drove away.
Mohamed Alawi ‘thought he was going to die’ when he was hit by Jay Stone’s silver Audi TT while crossing St Andrews Street in Newcastle City Centre, Newcastle Magistrates’ Court heard on Monday.
Stone, also known as Jason Hunt, pleaded guilty to failing to stop after a road accident and driving without due care and attention. He was handed a 25-month driving ban and a £200 fine.
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Rehana Haque, prosecuting, said the victim had been walking towards the city centre after leaving work on the afternoon of February 10 this year. When he reached the junction between Stowell Street and St Andrew's Street, he waited for a lorry to pass before crossing the road.
But when he was in the middle of the street a silver vehicle appeared, in the words of a witness, 'out of nowhere'.
She said: "The vehicle appeared to be going very fast and due to his position on the road he had nowhere to go in order to avoid [it]. He was then struck by the vehicle."
Ms Haque said Mr Alawi was left in pain and 'extremely frightened'. He was taken to the RVI, where he was found to have bruises down his right side, whiplash and pain in his lower back.
After Hitting Mr Alwai, Stone, who claimed he could not remember having struck a pedestrian, drove off. The witness, who said the car had appeared 'to be going much faster than the other cars on the road', took down digits from his number plate and called the police.
Stone was stopped less than an hour later by officers on Chillingham Road, in Heaton. He told them that he 'was driving down the road when two lads were taking the p*** crossing the road'.
He added: "I might have clipped one of them but he didn't go rolling across the windscreen or anything - for what it was I didn't stop.'
In a victim personal statement read to the court, Mr Alawi said: "I am struggling to sleep at night due to flashbacks of what happened. I really thought I might die when I was on the ground and couldn't feel my arm and leg. I can't describe that fear, it was the worst I've ever felt."
He added: "He was obviously in such a rush that he felt my life was unimportant and had no care or thought for me when he knocked me over."
In a report from the probation service, District Judge Paul Currer heard that Stone 'can suffer long-term memory problems' and claimed not to have been aware that he had hit someone and that he would have stopped if he had been aware of it.
Mitigating on behalf of Stone, who had a previous conviction for drink driving in 2013, Jack Lovell said: "It's almost 10 years now since Mr Stone was last before the court. It is right to say that he has shown genuine remorse when I've had the opportunity to speak about this with him...
"He has still maintained that at the time he didn't necessarily realise that he had hit somebody - he continued to drive and I think in hindsight had he realised he had struck somebody he would have remained at the scene."
He urged the judge to keep the inevitable driving ban as short as possible, as he said Stone often needed to drive for his business, Elements Talent and Events, which books DJs and performers for tours, venues, festivals and club nights, as well as private functions.
"He has been running quite a successful business since the end of the pandemic, he is a DJ by trade and he was doing a bit of work for a recruitment agency which led him to believe he would be able to run this company himself, which is what he's done, to his credit. The work involves travelling throughout the country," he added.
Banning Stone, of Budle Close, Newcastle, from driving for six months and handing him a £200 fine pluc £80 costs and a £95 surcharge, District Judge Currer said: "You've pleaded guilty to careless driving, it's a bad case of careless driving in that you drove your car without sufficient care to realise that you had struck somebody with such force with your car it caused them to have reasonably serious injuries.
"What makes it worse is that you did not stop at the scene, that's the serious offence for which you fall to be sentenced today... Everyone can make a mistake regarding bad driving but not stopping is what is serious about this case."
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