Express & Star

Stop the Speeders: Region's top cop backs campaign for tougher sentences

West Midlands Police's top cop has welcomed a campaign launched by the Express & Star calling for tougher sentences for killer drivers.

Published
Last updated
West Midlands Police chief Constable Dave Thompson

Chief Constable Dave Thompson said the issue of sentences for people convicted of causing death by dangerous driving needed to be reviewed.

The Stop The Speeders campaign was launched last week with more than 1,500 people having signed the Express & Star's petition.

It was started after two drivers were jailed for less than eight years each for killing people by dangerous driving.

More from the Stop the Speeders campaign:

Drunk Craig Edwards was driving at a speed almost twice the 30 mph limit when he hit grandfather John Hickinbottom in Walsall last June.

The 29-year-old, of Cumberland Road, Walsall, received a seven-year jail sentence after admitting causing death by dangerous driving, failing to stop at the scene and drink driving.

Kade Scrivens, 24, of Booth Street, Handsworth, was given a seven-and-a-half year sentence for killing 59-year-old Nicholas Harrison.

He lost control while speeding and hit Mr Harrison as he was cycling on Midland Road in Darlaston on November 22.

Scrivens, who admitted causing death by dangerous driving, then fled the scene to sober up, according to Judge Simon Ward.

Senseless

Speaking this week, Mr Thompson said: "It always strikes me there are some cases of senseless, mindless and very dangerous driving that result in death that, actually, were a similar senseless, violent act carried out would attract a higher sentence.

"I think it is absolutely appropriate this is looked at in a kind of balanced and sensible way with the evidence whether it would deter dangerous driving.

"I think on occasions that the mere fact it is a motor vehicle does appear to be treated a little lighter by the law and I think trying to get that more in balance is a more sensible thing."

He added: "So I genuinely support the debate on this, it is never for me to say what the sentence should be but I certainly think we shouldn't underestimate, particularly in very reckless cases of driving, that actually the behaviour is immensely dangerous and it should be treated very seriously."

Insult

Families of loved ones killed by drivers have also providing their backing to the campaign, including the daughter of Mr Hickinbottom, who described the sentence given to her father's killer as an insult.

Support has also come in from the father of 21-year-old Rebecca McManus, who was killed by a racing motorist in 2014.

The maximum a judge can give a defendant for dangerous driving is 14 years according to guidelines.

But this is often reduced due to an early guilty plea.

The Ministry of Justice has put forward a motion for this to be increased to life - but this is yet to go before Parliament.