A widow has been left distraught after a suspected joy rider smashed into her garden – causing hundreds of pounds damage.

Sheila Pyke, who suffers with Parkinson’s disease, had just finished making a cup of tea when the car came crashing into the garden, coming to a standstill inches from the kitchen.

The 65-year-old looked out to a scene of destruction with her fence smashed to pieces and debris from a brick wall showered across the garden of the home in River View, Rushenden.

The garden had been the pride and joy of her late husband George Pyke who died six months ago from lung cancer.

Mr Pyke, 66, was a former Queenborough mayor and town councillor, well known throughout the area for his community work.

Mother-of-six Mrs Pyke said: “The garden now looks like a bomb-site and all the stress has made my Parkinson’s worse.

“It was so frightening when it happened shortly before 11.30pm on Saturday night.

"I was watching TV and had made a cup of tea and had just returned to the lounge when I heard this almighty crash.

"I looked out the kitchen window and there was a car just inches from the window.

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