Footage shows moment lottery millionaire admitted causing fatal crash by picking up teddy from car floor

Matt Topham killed pensioner Jane Reglar after ploughing his BMW into her car on Christmas Day

Harrowing bodycam footage has been released showing the moment a lottery winner admitted causing a fatal road crash by turning to pick up a teddy bear dropped onto the car floor by his two-year-old son.

Matt Topham is heard telling officers at the scene that when he looked back at the road again his BMW X6 was in the wrong carriageway.

"I looked forward and I was head-on to headlights," the 31-year-old says. “I tried to get onto the verge.”

Retired cleaner Jane Reglar, 75, died in the resulting collision in the Lincolnshire village of North Cockerington. Her 78-year-old husband Rodney, who was driving the couple’s car, was also seriously injured but survived.

The new footage was released after Topham – who won £45m on the EuroMillions lottery nine years ago – was cleared of causing death by dangerous driving in the incident on Christmas Day 2019.

The father-of-three, of Swinderby, also Lincolnshire, had already admitted causing death by careless driving. He was given a 16-week suspended sentence and a one-year driving ban on Wednesday.

Speaking in the footage, he tells an officer: "I'm just gutted about everything obviously.

"What happened is we've literally just left the parent in-laws, they're just up there at Rushmoor Country Farm Park.

"I'd left first, I've got my two sons in the rear, one's two. My youngest had dropped his teddy on the floor, my eldest said 'he's dropped his teddy, he wants his teddy' and then he started going off.

"I turned around to get the teddy, slowed down, and when I looked forward I was on the wrong side of the road."

In an interview published after the trial concluded on Wednesday, Mr Reglar said he would “never forgive” Topham for causing the death of his wife of 56 years.

But he told the Mirror: “He took his eye off the road, we’ve all done it. Anyone that drives and says ‘I aint done it’ is a liar.

“It went wrong for him, and for me and my wife. But I don’t hold grudges … I haven’t got time to be a bitter man.

“And he’s got to live with it the rest of his life, if he’s got a conscience.”

Detective Inspector Joanna Reeves, of Lincolnshire Police, said: “The circumstances of the crash bring home just how very important it is for drivers to keep full attention on the road ahead.

"There are distractions both inside and outside of vehicles and while in hindsight the right thing for Matthew Topham to do would have been to find a safe place to pull over. He didn’t do that and he now lives with the consequences."