A FATHER brought terror to mothers and children and left wreckage in his wake on a five-minute school run, York Crown Court heard.

Ian Shields hit a parked van so hard it was knocked diagonally across Little Green Lane, in York, narrowly missed a telepgraph pole and struck a cyclist’s wheel in Tudor Road, said Bronia Hartley, prosecuting.

He drove on the wrong side of the road so wildly onlookers thought he had lost control of the vehicle and then it mounted the pavement and crashed into a tree.

He plucked a child who was sitting in the front passenger seat and fled with her into his home in Tudor Road, claiming his wife would “sort the car out”.

The Nissan Almera had no MoT certificate, Shields was not insured to drive it and he had not properly demisted the windscreen after a freezing night.

Recorder Julian Smith told Shields: “It is extraordinary in one sense, that you, a caring father, however pressed for time you may be, should seek to drive to a school which is just round the corner in a car that is not demisted on a bright and frosty morning.

“The roads that morning were extremely busy with school traffic when everyone was required and needed every road user to be doubly attentive. You failed abysmally on that day.

“You caused considerable damage, you caused considerable alarm, you caused many people to feel they had been fortunate indeed that nobody was harmed.”

Shields, 26, who has since moved to Tang Hall Lane, York, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving on November 29, driving without insurance, driving a car without a valid MoT certificate, failure to stop after an accident and failure to report an accident.

He was given an eight-month jail term, suspended for 18 months on condition he does 18 months’ supervision, goes on a rehabilitation course and does 80 hours’ unpaid work. He was also banned from driving for 18 months and ordered to take an extended driving test and pay a £100 victim surcharge.

Neal Kutte, representing Shields, said he had committed a “major error of judgement”, and panicked when he hit the van. He had thought he was insured because he had relied on his partner to arrange the car insurance, he said.

Miss Hartley said although the car clipped the bicycle’s front wheel, the cyclist was able to stay upright. The van’s owner told police he had lost £1,200 in income because he needed it for his business and it was off the road for eight days.