A young couple has told of the thousands worth of damage that has been caused to their first home after a car crashed through its front window.
The pair are unable to afford the massive repairs needed and their insurance doesn’t cover the extent of the damage, so they have been left asking others for help.
Saskia Wilkins, 23, and her partner Jamie were out at the time of the accident - which was in December - as they were spending some of the Christmas break with family.
They got a frantic call from their neighbours who had rushed over to their home to find a car embedded in the front window.
Saskia said they'd since been quoted €16,750 for repairs to their first home in Leeds.
Nursery worker Saskia told Leeds Live: "I was really stressed and it was really shocking and unexpected. I wasn't there luckily when it crashed into the living room because we were spending our Christmas with family.
"I was shocked when we got the call from our neighbours. We rushed over there and there was all the fire service, all the neighbours outside, everything was going on. I just burst into tears the minute I got there."
Officers from West Yorkshire Police were also at the scene after the crash, which happened just after 9am, but thankfully, no one was hurt.
"It knocked out the entire bay window and all the bricks underneath it," Saskia said. "It's damaged all the flooring in my living room too.
"The bay above it has also all come away because of the structural damage. It's all boarded up at the moment but it's very draughty - we stayed in hotels for the first few weeks after, which was very expensive. It doesn't feel very safe here."
Saskia and Jamie, who works in admin, have been unable to get the damage covered by their insurance, which left them with no choice but to set up a GoFundMe page to help them pay for repairs.
"I can't afford that," Saskia said. "It's my first home and I had to save a lot to get it in the first place. I'm just really struggling with how I'm going to afford this. It's put me in a really rubbish situation."
A spokesperson for West Yorkshire Police said at the time of the crash: "Police were called to Roundhay Grove at 9.25am on Tuesday [December 27] to a report a car had crashed into the front of an unoccupied house.
"Following an investigation into the incident, a 31-year-old man in the car was arrested on suspicion of driving while under the influence of drugs and drug offences. A second man was arrested and later charged with possession of a controlled drug."
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