An uninsured driver has escaped charges after crashing into a house and leaving its elderly owners with a damage bill close to $100,000. Padam Ghimire was driving on an Indian licence when he smashed into the Port Macquarie home of Bruce and Dawn Coker. “This has destroyed our lives,” Mrs Coker said. The couple’s house is on the market and they must sell within weeks, or else lose a deposit they’ve paid for a place in a retirement village. “It’s pretty hard to get a buyer and then convince them the house is going to be repaired,” Mr Coker said. The couple was watching television in their first floor lounge room when their world literally shattered around them. “It just sounded like a bomb or an earthquake because everything was falling – all the glassware, bits of gyprock were flying off,” Mrs Coker said. Her husband raced downstairs to find a car had crashed into the front of the home and his neighbour trying to stop Mr Ghimire fleeing the scene. Emergency crews flooded the driveway in a desperate effort to stabilise the home. But NSW Police said they could not take further action against Mr Ghimire as it was a minor accident. “It’s beyond my comprehension, I can’t believe it,” Mr Coker explained. “How can it be a minor accident when it’s tens of thousands [dollars worth of damage]? It’s just under a hundred thousand, we were told,” Mrs Coker added. Mr Ghimire, an aged care cleaner, said he crashed into the brick house after swerving off the road to avoid hitting a cat or a koala.
