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A shocked business owner feared he had been ram-raided when a car smashed into the side of his shop.
Martin Sims was at his home, at the back of Sholden Village Store in The Street, near Deal when he heard a “terrific bang” at the front at about 9.30pm last night.
The retailer, who runs the store with wife Sylvia, raced into the shop expecting to see the front of it destroyed.
He said: “We were sat on the sofa when there was a terrific bang and the whole house shook.
“I was expecting to walk into the shop and find the front of it missing or caved in – but thankfully it wasn’t.
“I didn’t know if it was a ram-raid, so I looked out of one of the blinds and saw the car with no one inside. It was embedded into the corner of the shop.
“It was a massive shock; it’s not something you expect.”
Mr Sims says the incident was caught on the shop’s CCTV.
The trader does not know how much it will cost him to repair the front of the store, but says it has only sustained superficial damage.
“There’s a little bit of damage to the rendering outside and inside some cracks have appeared in the plasterwork and ceiling – but there’s no structural damage, thankfully,” he added.
“If it had been a foot or so to the other side, it would have gone straight through the front of the shop.
“Thankfully no one was hurt. The car was a complete write-off; the CCTV shows its back wheels leave the floor when it hit the shop.”
Police and ambulance and fire crews were called to the scene.
A man in his 30s, from Sholden, was arrested on suspicion of drink-driving.
