A 35-year-old man was fined £250 for driving away from the scene of a crash without leaving his details.

James Mazzotta of Shaftesbury Avenue pleaded guilty to failing to stop after the smash on February 11, failing to report that same accident and driving the vehicle without an MOT. He was driving past the Swindon Borough Council offices on Euclid Street at around 20 to 25mph when a BMW pulled out onto the road without looking.

He swerved to avoid the car, collided with a wall, then reversed his Peugeot into a parked Toyota Auris and drove off. His MOT had expired in September 2016.

The driver of the BMW will appear in court in September and is being dealt with separately.

Prosecutor Pauline Lambert said: “This is unusual in that the incident takes place due to a fault with somebody else’s driving. In interview, he said that he had never been in an accident before and reversed to obtain the BMW driver’s licence plate but the vehicle had already gone.

“He had planned to get an MOT later that day and had an appointment at a garage. He was nervous and suffers from anxiety, he said he was in too much shock to report the accident or leave his details.

“Members of the public gathered around the Toyota, which had damage on the left-rear side which the owner described as a big dent.”

The defendant drove his damaged car to a car park near his brother’s restaurant, where it was left for a week before being picked up and deemed a write-off.

Mazzotta represented himself in court and gave a long letter to magistrates explaining his side of the story. The clerk noted that the contents of the letter were similar to what he said during his police interview.

Mazzotta said: “I should have reported the accident earlier.”

Chairman of the bench Christine Smith fined him £250 plus £85 in costs and a further £30 to victims’ services. The fine had been reduced from £375 due to his guilty plea.

He was also given five penalty points on his driver’s licence.