Video: Pensioner sleeps upstairs as car wrecks house

The disabled man and his stunned wife have now been left homeless after the careering Audi destroyed the bottom floor of their West Yorkshire house in the freak accident.

Audrey Ribchester said her husband George could have been killed in the smash, which has now forced them to move out of the terraced property in Todmorden.

Mrs Ribchester was unaware that the black Audi A3 had ploughed into her home while she was out shopping on Monday until she returned home.

“I thought I was dreaming when I walked around to the back of the house and saw the car inside the utility room. It was devastating,” she said.

“My first thought was George as he was sleeping upstairs. He could have been dead but he was fine thankfully.”

Although safe, Mr Ribchester, who uses an electric chair lift to get upstairs and downstairs, was left stranded when the power had to be turned off.

Mrs Ribchester’s niece, Tracy O’Keefe, said: “The whole thing has caused so much stress to my family.”

When firefighters arrived they discovered the offending car had rolled down a steep hill into the side of the couple’s home.

It had rolled down from a neighbouring property due to a suspected mechanical fault - nobody was in the car at the time of the crash.

Neighbour Susan Sunderland said: “We didn’t know what had happened until we looked at the back.

“It is scary to think what would have happened. If Audrey had been in the utility room she wouldn’t have seen the car coming s there are no windows. It could have been a different story.”

The incident caused extensive damage to the ground floor extension and the boiler had become disconnected.

Building control attended and ruled that the ground the floor extension was unsafe, meaning the couple have had to temporarily leave their home.