It’s hard to see why that didn’t warrant the maximum that could be given.
Can you imagine any worse form of driving? e.g. 110 mph in a 20 limit past a school at 3pm, or doing it whilst disqualified, etc. If you can conceive a worse behaviour (or a worse history leading up to the behaviour) then that is presumably what parliament considered when setting the maximum penalty.
I was thinking about sentencing recently when that guy that had been convicted for the Libor fraud got reduced to 11 years, which does seem harsh in comparison to cases like this one.
Really? It wasn’t a spontaneous stupid decision, that was a well considered decision by someone who understood the consequences and continued to do so for some time. Whilst you can’t point to a single life lost, its quite conceivable that many people suffered and I don’t think impossible that people will have considered, or actually taken, their own lives as a result – white collar crime doesn’t have a visible victim because indirectly we all suffer.
The ban running at the same time as the jail sentence or beginning after release?
Bans start immediately. But bear in mind that he is likely to be released on home leave, tag etc before his sentence is up.
Why can’t people like this be banned for life?
theoretically they can, but he is likely to appeal it if they did – because declaring that someone will never be safe to drive is a very bold move (it suggests an understanding of the psychology of dangerous drivers that without expert evidence the judge probably can’t assume). Its not clear what his previous driving record is – but I’d be more concerned about someone with a string of bad driving killing someone in 15 yrs than someone who has spent 12 yrs in custody for one episode! He’ll be 52 before he can apply for his provisional license and retake his extended test.
I often wonder in cases like this if Manslaughter would be a better verdict?
The Crown had that option. Presumably the expert legal opinion was that they didn’t feel confident of securing a Manslaughter conviction.