A mother returned to her parked car to find it embedded in a garden wall.

Maxine James first thought her car had been stolen when she came back from a hospital appointment to find it missing.

She left it parked on a hill but it appeared to have rolled down into the wall on its own.

Mrs James, a mother-of-two from Lancing, parked the green Volvo V40 estate facing downwards in Belle Vue Gardens, Brighton, yesterday morning.

She was taking her youngest son Reilly, aged six months, to the Royal Sussex Eye Hospital in nearby Edward Street for an appointment.

She was pushing Reilly and his elder brother Adi, 22 months, back to the car when she noticed what had happened.

She said: "I couldn't see the car in the space I'd put it. I thought it had been stolen.

"I was shocked. I was just glad the kids weren't in it."

Police attended the scene and checked the car, which was believed to have had the hand brake on.

The car suffered minor damage. No one was in the house at the time of the accident.

The crash was one of several similar accidents in Brighton this year.

A driver was arrested on suspicion of drink driving after his BMW car plunged into a basement flat in Temple Gardens in March.

In June, a homeowner was trapped briefly when a Mercedes crashed into the wall of his basement flat in Montpelier Terrace.