Newport man avoids jail after electric motorbike hit-and-run

A man who knocked a pedestrian unconscious with his electric motorbike and fled the scene has avoided prison.

Jordan Willetts, from Newport, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, driving without a licence and failing to stop at the scene of the crash in Newport last November.

Willetts, who handed himself into police two days after the crash, had been driving the wrong way down a one-way street at the time.

The victim, Sam Bevan, 33, previously told BBC Wales he had no recollection of the crash and only became aware after his neighbour showed him the “brutal” CCTV footage.

On Thursday, at Newport Magistrates Court, Willetts was given a 12-month suspended sentence.

The court previously heard how Bevan, from the St Julian’s area of Newport was hit as he crossed Fairoak Avenue.

He was unconscious for about five minutes and was found lying face down in the road by neighbours.

The crash left him with severe concussion and cuts to his face.

Two days later, neighbours who had helped him came to his home to ask how he was.

They told him he had been hit by what they described as an e-bike and graphic CCTV confirmed what happened.

Bevan said he was particularly upset that he had been the victim of a hit-and-run.

“That’s what’s annoyed me, the disrespect and not being humane and checking up on someone.”

He is still unable to drive.

Prosecutors told the court Willetts “eventually” handed himself in two days after the crash.

Asked about the crash as he left court after pleading guilty, Willets told the BBC: “Of course I’m sorry, why would I have handed myself in if I wasn’t sorry?”

Willetts’ father previously told the BBC his son had made a “mistake”.

It later emerged the electric motorbike was originally a push bike which was later modified.

Police investigators discovered the modifications had been made when it was seized.

Willetts was also disqualified from driving.