Four years for killer driver
A banned driver who killed two young friends when he smashed his high-powered car into a bridge after downing five pints on a beer bus was jailed for less than five years this afternoon.
Andrew Nicholls, aged 24, roared along in his Subaru Impreza at up to 80mph while ignoring desperate pleas to slow down, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.
This afternoon, police and relatives of victims Andrea Warmer, a 19-year-old barmaid, and 24-year-old Simon Wright described the sentence as a "slap in the face for people who put their faith in the British justice system".
Nicholls, who had never had a driving lesson, had been banned from the roads for a year for drink-driving just three months before the horror crash in April last year.
The court heard today how Miss Warmer and Mr Wright, a powder coater, had been passengers in the car, which Nicholls paid £2,000 for just a few weeks earlier, when he spun out of control and smashed into a bridge on Spring Road, Ettingshall.
Miss Warmer, of nearby Morton Avenue, and Mr Wright, from Gordon Avenue, Lanesfield, had not been wearing seatbelts and were thrown from the car. They died at the scene.
The four had earlier met up at the Rookery Tavern in Lanesfield and were heading to a party at the Forge Hammer pub in Spring Road.
Nicholls, described by Judge Rosemary Bush as "arrogant", later admitted having had at least five pints of lager on a beer bus and more at the Rookery.
Nicholls, of Tenacre Lane, Upper Gornal, admitted causing death by dangerous driving. Jailing him for four years and eight months, Judge Bush said the parents of Nicholls' victims would feel "robbed of what should have been".