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A B.C. Supreme Court justice has made a rare, and possibly the largest punitive damage award in Canada, against a hit-and-run motorist for recklessness and disdain.

Justice Heather MacNaughton hammered Leon Machi with the $100,000 penalty for lying and contempt for the rules of the road and the legal process.

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“His denial that he was the driver was entirely unbelievable,” MacNaughton concluded in a 138-page rebuke of the 34-year-old Vancouver man.

“The fact that Mr. Machi left the scene without stopping and did not cooperate with the police … is another example of Mr. Machi’s disregard for the legal rules which apply to him and govern behaviour in a civil society.”

Machi fled the Jan. 20, 2014, accident — at East First Avenue near Commercial Dr. — apparently because his licence was suspended, and had numerous previous convictions for driving while under suspension.

He left 22-year-old Veronica Howell lying unconscious on the dark, wet road with serious head and other injuries.