A DRIVER who drove off after she ran down and killed a couple has been found guilty of failing to stop after an accident.

Kimberly Hodgson, 26, was returning from a night out with a friend when she hit Steven Smith, 34, and his wife, Julie, 35.

Although the bonnet of her Y-registration Hyundai was buckled and the windscreen smashed, Hodgson left them in the road and drove four-and-a-half-miles.

Mr and Mrs Smith, from Washington, were killed instantly from multiple injuries.

Houghton-le-Spring Magistrates' Court heard Mrs Smith was bending down in the road and her husband was nearby on the A1231 dual carridge way at Washington, Wearside, when the accident took place.

Hodgson and her passenger, Rachel Brown, left the scene and went to Miss Brown's parents' home, in Sunderland.

The court was told they then raised the alarm but police were already at the scene.

Miss Brown told the court that she thought they had run into some plastic sheeting, before she realised it may have been a person.

She said they were worried about stopping because of what they might be confronted with at the scene.

She said they pulled into a layby but there was no public phone, so they drove to her parents' house.

Hodgson, of Sleaford, Lincolnshire, had denied failing to stop after an accident.The case was adjourned for sentencing at a later date.

After the hearing, Steven Smith's father, George, said: "If she had said to me I am sorry that they both died or sorry that I did not stop, I could have accepted that.

"But she did not. She left them on the road like a pile of dirt and that is what hurt me more than anything."