Noise '˜like a big rumble' as car crashes into house

Luckily, no-one was in the house when a Fiat Punto hit the building at around 7.20 pm. The driver ran off, police said.

Nextdoor neighbour Rosina Clements said her husband William heard a loud noise ‘like a big rumble.’

“We thought it was something in our house at first,” said Rosina. “We looked in the kitchen and out through the windows.

“Then my husband said ‘come and look at this.’

“There were two men in our garden and one was phoning the police.”

Rosina said when they saw the car and the destruction next door, ‘it was awful’.

“The car had gone through the main bedroom,” said Rosina, “knocking out the window and brickwork and was left with its bonnet right inside and rubble all round it.”

She said the owner was not home at the time of the incident.

“It was fortunate really that she wasn’t there,” Rosina added.

“The car came up the grass, through a fence and hedge and across the garden into the bedroom.

“It could quite easily have been us.”

She said the house was later shored up and the car removed at around 11.30 pm.

Police said later: “The driver and passenger of the car made off but then handed themselves into the police station half an hour later.

“The house owner was not at home at the time. No one was hurt but the building suffered structural damage.”

A 20-year-old man from Burgess Hill was later arrested by police on suspicion of driving a vehicle without due care and attention, driving without insurance and without a driving licence.