FAMILY members heard this week how window cleaner Stanley Hope was fatally injured when he was struck by a hit and run driver.

Mr Hope, aged 53, from Kidsgrove, suffered multiple injuries when he was hit by Clifford Dale's Daihatsu Four Track in Congleton in January.

Members of his family attended an inquest into the death on Tuesday, five days after Dale was sent to prison on charges linked to the accident.

A handcuffed Dale also attended the inquest, which heard he went into a "blind panic" when he realised he had possibly hit a person, and drove on without stopping.

He changed the distinctive real wheel cover on his vehicle for a plain one and added scratches to the bodywork to try to avoid arrest.

However 17 days after the accident Dale, aged 51, from Kinsey Street, Congleton, gave himself up to the police.

He was sent to prison for three years at Chester Crown Crown Court after pleading guilty to perverting the course of justice, failing to stop after an accident and failing to report an accident.

He was also banned from driving for life.

Judge Roger Dutton said it must have been clear to Dale that something serious had happened.

However instead of doing the right thing he had disguised his vehicle to put police off the scent.

Dale was a man of previous excellent character, he said, which made it all the more surprising that he had reacted in such an "extraordinary" way.

The court heard since the accident Dale's driving licence had been revoked by the DVLA after his eyesight was found to be below legal standards.

At Tuesday's inquest Dale chose not to answer questions about interviews he gave to police about the accident because he might incriminate himself.

Cheshire coroner Nicholas Rheinberg returned an open verdict, having rejected the options of verdicts of accidentaldeath or unlawful killing.

He said an accidental death verdict would be unsatisfactory, and he could not say beyond reasonable doubt Mr Hope's death was unlawful killing without independent witness evidence to justify such a verdict.

The inquest heard Mr Hope was struck by the front corner of the Daihatsu as he was returning to his Land Rover Discovery.

He had just collected window cleaning money from Ewart Pedley's home in Park Lane at 6pm.

The Land Rover was parked half on the road and half on the pavement on a right hand bend.

After being hit by the Daihatsu Mr Hope became trapped between it and the Land Rover, and was rolled between both vehicles.

He was thrown 30 feet from his vehicle into the road by the force of the impact, and one of his shoes ended up on the kitchen roof of Brenda Cowling's home.

When interviewed by police Dale, who worked at a farm at Rushton Spencer, said he had felt a "soft thud" as his vehicle had passed the Land Rover.

The sound was not metallic, and he realised he could have hit a person.

"I should have stopped, and don't know why I didn't," he said.

"I went into a blind panic and carried on home.

"The longer I left it the harder it got, and I was feeling so bad and sorry about it I felt I must come in to the police station."

Frank Clark and his partner Jacqueline Lee, from John Street, Congleton, were driving down Park Lane into Congleton behind the Daihatsu.

Jacqueline saw a body lying in the road, but told her partner not to stop because "I could not have coped with anything like that."

The inquest heard Dale was very short-sighted, and needed very strong prescription lenses in his glasses.

After examining Dale in March ophthalmologist Alan Hubbard said he was so short-sighted that he would not expect him to be able to pass a driving test.

He was suffering from tunnel vision, possibly as a result of glaucoma.