Men to be sentenced after car hits DFS store

Two men, one of which was left with life changing injuries, will be sentenced next month after admitting dangerous driving offences following a road traffic collision in Cannock in May 2019.

The collision, which saw a VW Scirocco leave the road at Longford Island and strike the front of a nearby DFS store, occurred at around 3:45am on 24 May 2019.

A Newton hearing, which took place at Stafford Crown Court yesterday (Wednesday 10 March 2021), determined that 57-year-old Mark Cole and 27-year-old Jordan Powers had been racing along the A5 before Powers’ car left the road.

Powers, of Victor Street, Pelsall, was left with life-changing injuries alongside his 34-year-old passenger. He pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving at a Magistrates hearing in September 2020.

Cole, of Banbury Road, Cannock, had initially pleaded not guilty to dangerous driving but changed his plea at a hearing on 5 February 2021. A Newton hearing, which determines the facts of a case, was called yesterday after Cole disputed the evidence put forward by the prosecution as to why he had been driving the way he had.

Judge Gosling also determined that both men did not know each other, despite working for the same company.

Sentencing has been scheduled for 21 April 2021 at Stafford Crown Court.