Stolen car crashes through Dagenham family’s garden fence

Angie Davies on the junction where the driver crashed into her garden fence (Image: Archant)

Angie Davies and her two children, Dannielle, 13, and Thomas, nine, were woken at 5.30am on Saturday, October 25 by the sound of a crash outside their Becontree Avenue house.

When she headed outside to investigate, she found the silver Audi A6 among the debris of her garden fence.

“If it had happened another time, we could all be dead right now,” she said.

“We had garden furniture by the fence and there’s a pool out the back that my children use as well.

“It’s all destroyed – the furniture, the fence, and everything on that side of it.”

Angie’s husband Paul, 42, was working a night shift at the time, but several of her neighbours came out to support her.

The driver had already fled the vehicle – which police confirmed had been stolen during a burglary in Hunter Hall Road – by the time Angie reached it.

She said: “One of my neighbours said he saw the man walking back down the road later on.

“I’d have confronted him at the time if I’d known.”

Now Angie will have to replace seven panels in the fence as well as everything that was damaged in her garden.

“The insurance company say they will cover it, but everything has been ruined,” she said.

Since moving into her house nine years ago, Angie, 37, said fast cars at the junction had become a common sight.

She told the Post: “It’s such a busy cut through for the school, and drivers come speeding round the corner all the time.”

Angie added the junction, unlike others on Becontree Avenue, did not have any bollards on, which she said may have helped slow the car before it hit her fence.

A council spokesman said they were in place on certain corners to prevent drivers from parking on the kerb rather than to protect property.

Despite the extensive damage to the back of the house, Angie said she was narrowly spared something far worse.

She said: “Our kitchen is on the outside, where all the gas pipes are – if the car had hit the house it could have caused an explosion and we might not be standing here today.”

Police have asked anyone with information on the theft of the car or the identity of the driver to call them on 101, or to phone Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

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