A Greymouth man has admitted going on a drunken joyride in a stolen car, crashing it into the front of a house where a little girl was sleeping, and then fleeing the scene.
Carl James Schroder, 19, climbed into a woman's car after a New Year's Eve party and went for a 20-minute drive without her knowledge, skidded in gravel and went nearly 110kph in a 50kph zone near North Beach.
At one point he missed a turn in a residential area, and the car became airborne for a short distance and crashed through two fences before crashing into the house where a child had been sleeping just metres away.
Schroder ran from the scene, but three days later he handed himself in to police, saying he must have been the one responsible but he could not remember any of it.
Lawyer Eymard Bradley said Schroder claimed he had not been drinking at the party and suspected he had been given drugs without his knowledge.
