A BRAZILIAN woman who cannot speak English panicked and left a blank sheet of paper on the Range Rover she’d hit before driving away, magistrates heard.
Renata Damaceno Vecci, 43, of Hunters Close, hoped the sheet of paper, which was headed with the address of her husband’s courier firm, would help the Range Rover’s owner track her down
Appearing in the dock yesterday, Vecci admitted charges of failing to report the collision and failing to stop after a road accident.
Prosecutor Pauline Lambert told the court that Vecci had been seen driving her Vauxhall Corsa into the Range Rover in the car park of the Iceland superstore on Cricklade Road on October 14.
“Mrs Vecci is seen to get out of the vehicle, but she leaves a blank note on the windscreen of the Range Rover then drives away from the location,” Ms Lambert said.
“The witness takes a note of the registration and sees the damage to the near side bumper as a result of the collision.”
Defending, Sam Arif said that her client’s lack of English left her unsure what to do when her car hit the larger 4x4, putting a note headed with the details of the courier firm her husband works for in the hope that it would help the Range Rover driver to track her down.
Ms Arif said: “She saw a woman in the car park laughing at her and felt frightened. She returned back about 15 minutes later to see if she could resolve it, but by that point the Range Rover had gone.”
Vecci, who has lived in the UK for a year, was “very sorry for finding herself in this trouble”, Ms Arif added.
Magistrates fined her £40, ordered that she pay a £30 victim surcharge and £40 costs.
They also added five penalty points on her licence, although the court heard that she drove under her Brazilian driving licence and had not applied for a British one.
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