A DRIVER has described the moment he lost control of his brand new £34,000 Skoda and crashed it through the front of his Stratton house.

The car’s owner, who did not wish to give his name, had only just collected it from the dealership when disaster struck.

He told the Adver as he tried to reverse it into the drive, it careened backwards smashing through the front door leaving a hole.

The car’s owner said: “It was a shock, it happened so quickly.

“The automatic handbrake comes on for a few seconds when you stop and then when put in reverse, the car still creeps back a little on a flat road but not on a slope like the one on my driveway.

“I didn’t know this at the time so when I put the car into reverse and it still didn’t move, I gave it more revs, then the handbrake released, the car shot backwards and I just couldn’t brake in time.

“My partner was standing near the front door waiting for me.

"She jumped back in fright and wasn’t hurt. She was shocked but relieved that I was alright.

“I can’t blame anyone else but myself, it was just one of those freak accidents. “

Stratton St Margaret fire station’s crew shared online some dramatic pictures of the crash’s immediate aftermath, which had left a gaping hole where the front door used to be.

A small pile of bricks and other debris remains near the entrance, though the hole is now secured with nailed-down wooden boards, which forces the homeowners to use the garage if they need to leave the property.

From the front, the car seems unscratched but the back is badly dented, the bumper is crumpled and coated in dust and rubble, the brake and reverse lights are cracked and broken, and one of the letters of the car’s name – Superb – hangs upside down.

The car’s owner added: “It looks bad but I think the car could be fixed.

"The front door and debris is still in the house, we’re getting a surveyor in to sort that, who knows how long it will take.

“I’m boarded up in my own home, it’s all a bit of a nightmare.

"I called the dealer and said ‘You know the car I picked up an hour ago? It’s parked in my house’.

“He mentioned the automatic handbrake thing and I said I wish he’d told me that earlier!”

Emergency service vehicles filled the street and the adjoining Casson Road while police dealt with any traffic and firefighters from Stratton and Swindon fire stations spent four hours on Friday evening.

A spokesman for Stratton fire station said: “Both Stratton crews were mobilised to a car into a building for the second night running alongside Swindon Fire Station and Swindon Fire RDS operational support unit.”

If the car can be made roadworthy again, does the driver have any second thoughts or worries about getting back behind the wheel after what happened?

He added: “I’ve sat and thought about this quite a lot – is it worth it?

"Should I be doing it? – but at the end of the day, I have to drive to work in the town centre, as I have done for the last 38 years. I’ll get the hang of it.”

A Wiltshire Police spokesman said: “We were called at 5.40pm on Friday evening to reports that a vehicle had reversed into a property in Shaplands, Stratton St Margaret.

“The vehicle had been reversed into the porch of the property.

"The driver and passenger of the car were unhurt and there were no further reported injuries.

“The property has since been secured and made safe. No arrests were made at the scene.”