A SUSPECTED drink driver escaped a police tracker dog on Sunday night after ploughing his car into a garden in Haydon Wick.

Just before 10pm on Sunday, police were alerted to reports of a grey Renault Clio having collided with a residential property on The Brow.

The Clio had come off the road and struck a lamp post before careering into a garden on a hairpin bend at the junction of The Brow and High Street.

No other vehicles were involved, and police were unable to give the driver, a 24-year-old man from Swindon, a breathalyser test.

After coming to a stop the man abandoned his car and officers from the North Swindon neighbourhood policing team dispatched their tracker dog to run him down.

PCSO Lee Hare attended the scene as the police dog spent an hour searching the area with no success.

“We cannot be sure of the speed of the car, but it is a concrete lamppost so it would have taken some force to push it over,” he said.

“The dog did not get him so we were unable to breathalyse.”

The driver of the car was soon identified, and while officers failed to locate him during the chase on Sunday he handed himself in first thing the next day.

No arrests have yet been made pending further inquiries.

PCSO Hare said the bend in the road was a cause for concern, and it took officers three hours to extract the wreckage of the car from the lamp-post.

“It is a very unusual occurrence for that area, but it is a dangerous bend,” he said. “The people who live in the area are aware it is a sharp bend so everyone takes the necessary precautions when going round it.

“The problem we had at the time was with the lamp post itself.

“It was a live wire, so we were unable to move the car at first.

“We had to wait until about 1am to recover the car because we had to wait until we could make sure the lamp post was safe.

“The occupant of the house was not at home at the time thankfully.

“It is quite an elderly lady who lives there, so it is just as well she wasn’t there to see this happen.”

Police are appealing for anyone who may have witnessed the incident to come forward.

Anyone with information on this incident is asked to contact Wiltshire Police on 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 where information can be left anonymously.