🔴 CAR AS A WEAPON: MAN JAILED FOR RUNNING OVER DOG OWNER
A drunken late-night street confrontation spiralled into extreme violence when a driver returned at speed, turning a roadside argument into a prison-bound offence before a crown court. Uangasane Hange, 28, has been jailed for a total of 32 months after admitting attempting to cause grievous bodily harm and driving dangerously following a violent roadside incident in Stoke-on-Trent in which a dog was killed and its owner deliberately struck by a car.
The case was heard at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court, where the court was told the offending unfolded in the late evening of 13 September 2022 and the early hours of the following morning, after the victim had left Knutton Club having played darts with a relative.
Prosecutor Emmanuel Coniah told the court the victim was walking home along Church Lane with his dog when a car approached from behind and struck the animal, killing it at the scene.
The prosecution case was clear that the dog’s death was not deliberate.
However, the incident escalated rapidly after the driver, later identified as Hange, pulled away towards Cherry Hill Lane.
Evidence before the court established that racist abuse was shouted towards Hange in the immediate aftermath.
Moments later, as the victim walked away with his back turned, Hange re-entered his vehicle, revved the engine loudly and drove back towards him at speed.
The victim was struck with such force that he was thrown onto the bonnet and windscreen before being flung to the ground.
The court heard that the defendant then drove into the man a second time, knocking him to the floor again, before a brief physical altercation followed.
Hange was driving a Vauxhall Insignia, which the sentencing judge later described as a “highly dangerous weapon or weapon equivalent”.
In interview, Hange admitted he had consumed three cans of Stella lager before driving.
He accepted that his actions were dangerous and wholly wrong.
Paul Cliff, mitigating, told the court the incident was spontaneous, marked by panic rather than premeditation.
He said his client did not intend to harm the dog, had come to the UK in 2009, worked as a care assistant and was the father of three children, acting as the principal carer for one.
Passing sentence, Judge Richard McConaghy said the victim’s racial abuse was “unacceptable” but made clear it provided no justification.
“You showed no sympathy or understanding to a man whose dog had just been killed,” he said.
“You then chose to drive deliberately at him at speed”.
The judge imposed a prison term of two years and eight months and disqualified Hange from driving for five years, extended by a further 16 months to reflect the custodial period.
In a related statement released after sentencing, Detective Constable Mia Joyce of CID North said Hange had admitted he “used his car as a weapon” and that the conviction demonstrated such conduct would not be tolerated.
The victim was fortunate not to have been seriously injured, the court was told, and Hange was described as lightly convicted prior to the incident.
