Speeding BMW driver went to extraordinary lengths to try and cover up hit-and-run which left gran in 'living hell'...she died months later

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

A gran died months after suffering horrendous injuries in a hit-and-run involving a speeding BMW driver who went to extraordinary lengths to try and cover up his crimes. Businessman Joshua Hartley went through a red light and ploughed into 66-year-old Valerie Sandham, who had just got off a bus to go shopping in Wythenshawe.

Mrs Sandham died six months later. Her family described the last period of her life as a 'living hell', after she underwent six operations after suffering breaks to her leg, spine, ribs and arm.

After the horror crash, the previously independent mum needed a stick or a walker to get around, as well as requiring 'degrading' help getting washed or dressed. Hartley, 32, left her seriously hurt in the road, after Mrs Sandham had been violently thrown into the air. He hid his BMW for a few days after the crash, then arranged to have it repaired and sold on.

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Months later 'diligent' police officers traced the car to the west Midlands, where they found it had undergone significant repairs including a full bumper replacement. The use of data in the vehicle allowed police to prove that the car had been at the scene of the hit-and-run, and cell site data showed Hartley was also present.

He eventually pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving, and has now been jailed for three years and four months following a hearing at Manchester Crown Court. Mrs Sandham contracted Covid and suffered other complications, and prosecutors did not allege there was a causal link between the crash and her death.

Her family hit out at Hartley for making the mum-of-three's life a 'living hell'. "The defendant has shown no