A woman who suffered life-changing injuries after a dog-thief's car ploughed into her is now bravely speaking out about her ordeal and calling for tougher sentences.

Nicole Hambelton’s spine and legs were broken in a head-on crash near Canterbury, when Danny Frankham, 31, tried fleeing from the police.

KentOnline reported yesterday how Frankham, of Harrietsham near Maidstone, had snatched five cocker spaniel puppies and their mother from a barn moments before the horror-crash.

Miss Hambelton, of Manston, battled her anxiety to bravely face the father-of-two at his sentencing hearing this week.

But the 24-year-old left Canterbury Crown Court feeling disheartened after the man who changed her life forever was handed four years in prison.

“I felt anxious because the case took so long to go to court,” she told KentOnline.

“I had never seen Frankham's face until last month - it was pitch black on the night of the crash.

“Now, I feel anger towards the justice system. Things move so slowly. It seems money was more important than the victim, me, who has a lifetime of injuries to face, and the trauma I had to suffer a good year after the accident.

“He was only given four years – he will be out in two. That is less time in custody than it has taken for the case to come to court.

“After those two years he will be back with his family living a normal life, while I’m left with mental and physical scars, and even more surgery."

In stormy weather, Frankham and an accomplice drove his Subaru Legacy to a stable in Shalloak Road, Broad Oak.

They snuck into an unlocked barn and snatched a litter of five puppies and their mother to ensure they could be fed milk.

“I lost part of my life I won’t get back...”

The pair bundled the cocker spaniels, worth about £1,300 each, into Frankham’s Subaru Legacy and made off along the A28 Ashford Road towards Canterbury.

But a police patrol car later spotted Frankham’s erratic driving and activated blue lights, prompting him to speed off in a residential 30mph zone.

Miss Hambelton was driving in the opposite direction when she saw Frankham’s vehicle drifting head-on towards her “like a race car”.

Laurence Imrie, prosecuting, explained on Wednesday: “On that left-hand bend the driver of the Subaru lost control, slid across the carriageway and collided head on with a white Vauxhall Corsa which had been travelling in the opposite direction.

“Miss Hambelton, the sole occupant of the Vauxhall Corsa describes the car driving on her side of the road, that it was going so fast it looked like it was doing 100mph and she could see it was drifting like a racing car would on a racetrack, with the back of the car already on the pavement.

“She had no time to react or brake and the car hit her head on - she says that she shut her eyes and the car was spinning around.

“One of the dogs had to be put down and another was never recovered.”

Frankham and his accomplice fled on foot leaving Miss Hambelton in the crumpled wreckage with life-changing injuries.

Miss Hambelton, who works as a flight attendant and NHS worker, would have to endure a painstaking nine-hour operation before learning to walk again.

Speaking after the sentencing hearing, she described the untold pain and mental trauma she endured, with her dignity temporarily stripped away.

“My recovery made me feel like I was a child again, where my mum became my full-time carer while I was bed-bound for three months,” she said.

“As a young woman that felt embarrassing - I lost part of my life I won’t get back.

“Learning to walk again was the hardest, most challenging experience I’ve faced, and not being able to socialise like a normal 22-year-old was mentally hard.

“My frustration and anger towards the world following the crash eventually led me into counselling.”

By June of 2021 her legs were still too weak to walk her dog and, after numerous medical appointments, she can now only manage short distances.

“He fled the scene of the crime knowing full-well I had been seriously injured...”

On that fateful night in October 2020, Frankham’s Subaru careered into trees and came to a rest at a river bank.

He and his accomplice waded through the river and split up, with Frankham hiding in a fisherman’s tent after discarding his wet clothes.

But police officers and a search dog soon traced Frankham, who himself had sustained cuts and swelling, and he was conveyed to a hospital while under arrest.

He provided a blood sample which tested positive for cannabis.

On the day of trial in February at the same court, Frankham pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving and burglary.

Miss Hambelton had to attend, expecting to give evidence to 12 strangers and relive the traumatic events.

At Frankham's sentencing hearing this week she said in a victim impact statement: “I always wanted to be a police officer but have now accepted I will not be fit enough to do this.”

Frankham's lawyer Piers Walter said he also suffered an injury during the crash, a fractured ankle.

He said Frankham had since been working collecting scrap metal to help provide for his children and he too suffered mental health issues after the crash.

Mr Walter stressed Frankham pleaded guilty on the day of trial, claimed he didn’t see the police’s blue lights, and wished to apologise “for the accident”.

Reading a letter penned by Frankham, the lawyer said he was “so sorry” and “I’m ashamed of my behaviour”.

Inside the courtroom, Miss Hambelton, who was sitting just meters away from Frankham in the dock, could be seen crying as the words were read.

But speaking after the hearing, she said she became upset when it dawned on her Frankham's apology may have been hollow.

“He complained in the hearing about his own injuries, his own mental health struggles, how he wouldn’t be able to see his kids if he was locked up,” she told KentOnline.

"He tried placing blame onto the passenger of his vehicle - he fled the scene of the crime knowing full-well I had been seriously injured.

“I cried when his apology letter was read out in court.”

She added: “I wasn’t crying because it upset me. I cried because I knew full well his intentions of writing it was to try and get a lower sentence, not because he was actually sorry.

“He didn’t have any remorse for what he did to me.”

Mr Walter argued Frankham was not trying to avoid the police at the time his car accelerated. However, the judge, Recorder Amy Nicholson, rejected the claims.

“In my judgement, you do not show true remorse - the remorse is for the situation in which you find yourself,” she said.

“Through your counsel, you say you are sorry for the accident, it was not an accident, it was a criminal act.”

She told Frankham he had snatched away his victim’s dreams of becoming a police officer by “irrevocably blightening her young life”.

Frankham, of Water Lane, was jailed for four years and will face a driving ban for a further two upon his release.

Meanwhile, Miss Hambelton is back behind the wheel and has plans in the pipeline to start a petition calling for tougher sentences for those convicted of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

“I felt happy to get behind the wheel again, so I could get back my independence. I’m very grateful that I enjoy driving and can still drive,” she explained.

“People are always taking a risk when they get behind the wheel - for me, I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”