A 91-year-old grandad opened his curtains to discover the fence bordering his front garden had been flattened by a driver who fled from the scene in the middle of the night.

Former shop manager Leslie Gower has lived in his bungalow in Leeds Road, Langley, near Maidstone, for more than 60 years and warned that traffic was now going increasingly fast in what is supposed to be a 30mph zone.

Concerned neighbours rang the police after the vehicle crashed through the fence, into the garden, hitting another bit of fencing between Mr Gower's home and the neighbouring property, before driving off.

Mr Gower said: "I woke up at 7.15am and I opened the curtains at 8am and all the fence was down.

"They went into next door and knocked her fence down, then they backed into my place to get out."

From the tyre tracks, Mr Gower said it looked like it had been a 4x4 vehicle.

He estimated the damage would cost about £400 to repair and was waiting to hear whether his insurance would cover it.

Paulette Poulter, who met Mr Gower as a volunteer for a befriending service four years ago and lives nearby, says it was not the first time a vehicle had come off the road, a busy route that links the A274 Sutton Road with the M20 and A20, and crashed through a fence.

She said: "It's such a fast road out here. They just speed along really. When you're quite old you don't need all this."

Mr Gower, who built the bungalow for him and his wife in 1956 and used to run a shoe repair shop in Bower Lane, Maidstone, said: "I have lived here a long time. There was nothing around then. It was all countryside."

The grandad-of-six added that he was just glad the vehicle had not crashed into his home.

A police spokesman said: "Kent Police was called at 1.50am on November 3 to a report that a vehicle had collided with fences in Leeds Road, Langley.

"The vehicle failed to stop and left the scene and is believed to have headed in the direction of Sutton Road. The driver has not been identified."

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