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Lord Ahmed

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Everhelpful | 13:22 Wed 25th Feb 2009 | News
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12 WEEKS jail for killing someone while sending and receiving texts while driving on the M1. You couldn't make it up!!!!! Open Prison for 6 weeks,no doubt.!!
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Could have got a maximum 5 years,but hey,He's a Lord,can't have that old-boy
Says it all ...... his Human Rights! The racial gap widens!
You beat me to it Everhelpful, yes absolutely disgusting a law for one and a law for others in this country.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?se archPhrase=jailed+for+dangerous+driving

Why has this man been given such a lenient sentence. compared with all those others.

Even a dinner lady got 6 months for drink driving and she didn't kill anyone.
its still a them and us attitude,if i were the family of the person killed i would be taking this to the very highest level to make sure he gets a proper sentence...its a disgrace....and the prime minister should step in...if he can that is.
How is it the public see that killing someone with a car warrants a longer prison sentence, but the legal system and politicians generally seem blind to the outrage and suffering weak sentences cause?
The link cited says that the judge made clear that the text messaging was not connected weith the fatal accident. Note that Ahmed wasn't charged or convicted of causing death by dangerous or careless driving (and couldn't have been, from what the judge said) Good old Daily Mail! So why the headline 'jailed over death crash'?

What was wrong with the Mail having this as 'Middle class man, just like one of us, the Daily Mail readers, is jailed for text-messaging when driving.' Or would that strike too close to home and upset the readers ?

Any info about this dinner lady referred to above by AOG, who got 6 months? It sounds, from the sentence, as though she is an alcoholic with a bad record of drink-drive, who was paralytic when stopped.
Ah,I see the 'dinner lady' is further down the same link ! Doesn't say what her previous convictions were,if any,but that may not matter in this case.She was 6 times the limit when found after driving 7 miles, apparently after work, and being noted by concerned staff as having alcohol on her breath when she'd arrived at work.Other drivers were involved in this, frightened at her driving.
She has to be an alcoholic. Six times the limit is commonly fatal, would be to any non-alcoholic, who'd have passed out long before reaching anything that level. That level is close to record breaking.So she's a woman who must surely be over the limit every time she drives a car !
No wonder she got 6 months.
She still did not kill anyone.

Further to your other incorrect post.

<i.Note that Ahmed wasn't charged or convicted of causing death by dangerous or careless driving (and couldn't have been, from what the judge said)

What the judge said:

He concluded: "I have come to the conclusion that by reason of the prolonged, deliberate, repeated and highly dangerous driving for which you have pleaded guilty, only an immediate custodial sentence can be justified."

Charged and convicted of dangerous driving in my book, hence the Daily Mail's 'jailed over death crash'?

Good old Daily Mail, Jailed!!! YES, death crash!!!! YES again.

Main problem is that the Law is an absolute ass!
Too often, so-called "mitigating circumstances" i.e. reasons for NOT giving the offender exactly what they deserve, are used to sway the magistrates/judge/jury etc etc, and this ploy usually works.
If you've never gone to watch a Court case I'd strongly advise you to go to one - as long as you have a sense of humour!

The performance of some defence solicitors is Oscar winning to say the least! I always thought that they were supposed to actually believe in their clients' innocence before agreeing to defend them - how naive I used to be! If most of them DO think that, then they are either totally gullible or extremely skilful actors, or both!

I once saw a Judge direct a jury to take no more notice of the Police evidence than that of other prosecution witnesses! It just so happened that THOSE witnesses had all been intoxicated at the scene of the offence whereas the Police attending it, who saw as much as those witnesses, obviously were sober! As a result, the jury acquitted a defendant of a serious assault who was clearly
banged to rights!

Plus, there is such inconsistency in sentencing which I believe is the one of the reasons why Joe Public loses faith in "The System".
It's not the racial divide - it's the money divide.

Note he had a QC defending him - that won't have hurt

compare with Lorry Driver who got 2 years in what seems on the face of it a very similar case.
Who had a much less expensive and experience lawyer


http://news.scotsman.com/uk/Texting-driver-in- fatal-crash.4938845.jp

This is a more accurate comparison - someone who was texting (as opposed to speeding or drink driving).

She was given 21 months.

I agree 100% - this is far too lenient (though he would never have been given the 5 year maximum sentence since he pleaded guilty)

Paraffin, what you describe the judge saying sounds like the standard direction which every judge is to required to give viz that all witnesses, including the defendant, are to be treated equally. That is required lest the jury think the prosecution witnesses (including the police) are more credible or of more weight simply because the prosecution calls them. A direction that the police are no different from any other witnesses fits in with that direction.

Furthermore the judge must emphasize that his opinion of the credibility or quality of any witness , like all questions of fact, are for the jury alone and the jury is not to be swayed by any opinion that the judge appears to them to be expressing on such questions.

What the jury makes of the evidence of the witnesses and what the jury finds proved beyond a reasonable doubt (or not) is a matter for them

Some judges used to put the equality point pithily: " All witnesses start equal when they enter the witness box but may not be equal when they leave it !"
he will only serve half the sentance as well
Oneyedvic, did you notice that the woman in your link was convicted of causing death by dangerous driving whereas Ahmed was not (and evidently could not have been, as it was not connected to a fatal accident )? Since it was her texting that was key to causing the death, how is her case " a more accurate comparison"? That 'causing death ' explains her sentence.
It appears to me from other similar posts( Where most people are outraged), that fredpuli47 is either deliberately being anti-public opinion ,i.e winding people up,or is the original do-gooder in Society.
I just saw this on the news (and what I say in the rest of this post is based on the BBC news report - I have not seen the case transcript). He had ceased texting 3 minutes before the accident. however, the "prolonged" texting he had done beforehand (amounting to around 16 minutes) at a speed of around 60 mph is what he was jailed for. And rightly so. The punishment in this case fits the crime. he has deliberately flouted driving laws and for this he should pay the price. However, he was NOT convicted of killing someone whilst sending and receiving texts. The accident occured when the driver of the other car who had already been involved in an accident was straddling two lanes of a dark motorway.

I nearly hit a car that had spun on an A road one night - it was pitch black, the car was black, it had no lights on and I missed it only with inches to spare and by putting my own car on the verge. A split second and that could have been me. Not sure I would have felt a jail sentence to be reasonable in those circumstances - irrespective of what I may or may not have been doing 3 minutes earlier.
He will appeal, if this fails, then it's off to the european court.

Say no more, case closed.
he's in Doncatraz AOG.
Do you want me to get a message to him?
i can if you want.
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