Britain: A Third Worlder mowed down a young woman on a pedestrian crossing and dashed off — because he was late to collect his benefits

Balram Singh, 21, had no licence or insurance when he was rushing to pick up his Jobseeker’s Allowance. He ignored a red light and ploughed into Kate Allan, 23, who crashed into his windscreen before landing in the road. Singh then raced off in Brentry, Bristol — missing her head by a fraction. In a victim impact statement, Miss Allan told a court: “If I had not moved my head out of the way of the car he would have driven over me.” She was left with pain to her right leg, neck, ribs and down the left side of her body. Bristol Crown Court also heard that she was still suffering pain two months after the crash in December 2011. When cops tracked down Singh — who ended up being too late to collect his payment — he told them he did not stop because he wanted “to come home and look on the Internet to see what would happen to me”. Singh, who had driven a relative’s VW Polo without permission, admitted aggravated vehicle taking, failing to stop and driving without a licence and insurance. He was given an eight-month suspended sentence, a two-year driving ban and a four-month curfew. He was also told to do 300 hours of unpaid work and pay £1,500 in compensation. Singh moaned that his sentence was unfair. He said: “I was very lucky not to get sent to prison but I think the two-year ban was a little harsh because it’s really going to hurt my hunt for a job. I’m not a bad driver — I just hadn’t passed my test. I feel bad for what happened, and if something like that happened again, I now know what to do. I don’t think it’s fair that the judge ordered me to pay £1,500 out of my jobseekers. The ban and community order were enough of a punishment.”