A TEENAGE drug addict injected himself with heroin behind the wheel of a car and mowed down a mother-of-three, a court heard.

Liam Dye, 18, had never even had a driving lesson before he borrowed a friend's Citroen AX and struck Susan Nellist, 42, as she crossed the road outside her home with her husband.

Prosecutor Ray Priest told Teesside Crown Court: "Anyone in command of their senses would have seen them."

The tearaway smashed through a wall in Trimdon Avenue, Middlesbrough, and the car landed upside down, but he ran away.

Dye, of Denton Close, Middlesbrough, admitted causing Mrs Nellist's death by careless driving while under the influence of drugs last December 6 and was given four years detention.