Police have revealed the heroism of Claire Garnett in the minutes after a Golf car crashed into her home and changed her family's life forever.

A statement released by North Yorkshire Police after the court case reveals how she twice climbed over the burning Golf to rescue her husband David. The second time she was pulling and carrying him.

The family had recently returned from holiday when, early on September 3, the parents were relaxing in their living room in Morehall Close, Clifton Moor watching television.

Their youngest child was sleeping upstairs. Claire got up to go to the kitchen.

Suddenly with "the sound of a bomb going off" James Andrew Sparham's car crashed through their living room door.

It broke the electrics plunging their house into darkness and she turned to see her husband buried under debris under the burning smoking "souped-up" Golf.

As she later told York Crown Court, "she should have been dead". But she had survived and although terrified the car would explode, she climbed over the burning car and cleared rubble off David before climbing back over the car carrying and pulling him to safety.

Choking in the thick black smoke, she managed to get him to the rear of the home while the flames from the car set light to the lounge and smoke filled their house.

All their possessions were lost in the fire. In a family statement, the couple said: "The one place anyone should always be able to feel safe is within the four walls of your own home."

David spent weeks in Leeds Major Trauma Unit and York Hospital undergoing surgery and treatment for extreme injuries to his legs, a broken nose and the loss of sight in one eye.

The effects will be with him for the rest of his life. Claire herself suffered back and neck and other injuries.

Both had suffered severe post traumatic stress, particularly David, who lost his job when his employers carried out a "fitness to work" assessment six months after the crash.

Claire has had to leave her job to be his full-time carer.

They have been unable to live in their house since the crash and fear they will lose it completely because they will not be able to afford the mortgage.

The cost of repairing the house has been put at £175,000.