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news
broken bike.jpgUninsured killer drug driver given 5 years for cyclist death
A driver from Gloucestershire who admitted killing a cyclist after speeding up to try and get away from police officers who were following him because he had no insurance has been jailed for five years.
Joseph Marchant was killed on 27 October last year in Bisley Road, Stroud, with his bike dragged under the Saab car driven by Daryl Ackland.
Ackland, of Target Close, pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving and having no insurance.
Police arrested Ackland, 36, from Stroud, following a search which also involved dog handlers. Three other people were also arrested but were subsequently released without charge.
Appearing at Gloucester Crown Court via videolink from Hewell Prison near Redditch, Ackland pleaded guilty to causing the death of Mr Marchant by dangerous driving, and also admitted driving without insurance.
Officers had begun to follow him because they believed he was uninsured, and recorded dashcam footage of his driving, but not the fatal crash itself.
He was on bail at the time for earlier offences of driving under the influence of illegal drugs and possessing heroin.
Judge Jamie Tabor at Gloucester Crown Court described Mr Marchant as an "exceptional man" who lived by the motto "do ordinary things extraordinarily well”.
He said: "You killed him quite accidentally but through sheer recklessness. It was due to your own selfishness, pursuing your own lifestyle addicted to drugs and not caring at all for your fellow human being,” the BBC reported.
Mr Marchant's son, Bodie Klein, described his father as an "accomplished artist" and losing him was "tragic".
Ackland was jailed for five years and four months and banned from driving for six years.
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27 comments
I am the nephew of the deceased and was very close to my Uncle Joe.
I am disrurbed by the anger and vitriol expressed in the thread, especially that directed at the police.
For the record. The police did not chase. They flashed their blue lights at the defendant, as they knew him and knew he shouldn't be driving, as he was on bail for a previous driving offence. He sped off as a result but the police didn't chase as they knew it was unsafe to. I also have been told that the officer driving wasn't qualified to chase.
The police have been excellent. Huge resources were employed to capture the defendant once he ran from the scene and they have been fantastic with my family, as has the court. I do however think the sentence too lenient. The police and courts are equally frustrated by the maximum sentences that can be handed down
The problem lies with government, the crisis in our prisons, the lack of funding and the lack of revenue. Big multinational businesses don't pay their share of tax and yet we still support them, then complain when the government doesn't have enough money to spend.
Also, this is our world, our country, our lives. We are not passengers, we are participants. We should all be more involved with eachother, kinder to eachother and supportive of eachother. But we prefer to sit back and do nothing, then rant at the authorities if it is not to our liking. It us not just the police's job. It is the responsibility of each and every one of us to make our society a better place.
To sit on forums, simply getting angry is not productive and throwing expletives at eachother is an unnecessary action.
I miss my Uncle. Nothing will bring him back. But if we support our police, help the needy, desperate and underprivileged, promote community, and conquer greed, perhaps we could go someway to ensuring that this kind of thing happens less often.
@burtthebike
Just a thought........
Maybe be to microchip people that sends a gps signal when they get into a vehicle even as a passenger, that signal gets sent to nearest police force who can then see what is going on, any slippage on the 'not driving whilst banned' would be picked up quickly, go to jail, do not pass go, do not collect £200, in fact just a mandatory sentance of 3 years for breaking terms of your contract, i.e. not to drive whilst banned.
Some might say it seems harsh, but at least this might actually deter people from getting behind the wheel when they are banned and after all it is just a suggestion.
By the way I'm not right wing, I'm not trolling, I am a road user who is fed up of this country being so soft on people who break the law, our laws need a complete review, some of our sentancing is completely out dated.
Anyway off the soap box and back to work.
What is ridiculous? That the number of deaths resulting from the apparent wanton reckless abandon of police driving pursuits you quoted is the same number of people killed by bees in 2010.?
The big difference in the behaviour of the British police VS I don't know the behaviour of the US police perhaps? I think that currently stands at 2000 to 1 at the present rate...again what is your point? If you're comparing us to other nations we're the most trained least equipped force in the world/
What do you as a citizen of the UK expect the Police to do? Do you want dangerous drivers off the road? do you want them to charge drivers for using their mobile phones, for jumping lights, for dangerous driving...what the fuck do you want them to do, look up their Number plate and write them a letter politely asking them to report to Pentonville? "Sorry Guvnor' it's a fair cop, I was bang out of rights I was". You're on another planet!
This has veered off on a tangent spectacularly.
Some scrote, given chase by police for being a scrote, has been even more of a scrote and squashed a cyclist.
Scum like him are the problem - if police have to perform an in-depth risk assessment every time they consider chasing scrotes then they'll stop doing it and scrotes will be even scrotier.
Blame attributable to plod? Fuck-all.
I think Python made a good point - the report does say, "killing a cyclist after speeding up to try and get away from police officers"
The police are trained and very aware of the potential risks and generally not in favour of hollywood style car chases
I agree that there's probably no blame to be attached to the police here, but rather that the way it has been reported has been over-simplified
thanks for policing the thread though Davel
So you just agreed to everything I said, you moron
maybe, I guess I disagree with the way you said it though
SP69 what facts? the report describes following the suspect until they sped up, and not filming the actual collision. This does not sound like the hihgh speed chase you are assuming happened.
"
A driver from Gloucestershire who admitted killing a cyclist after speeding up to try and get away from police officers who were following him because he had no insurance has been jailed for five years.
Officers had begun to follow him because they believed he was uninsured, and recorded dashcam footage of his driving, but not the fatal crash itself.
"
If they were in high speed pursiot as you suggest, they would have still had the suspect in sight at the moment of impact. You have no proof the actions of the police in any way contributed to this incident, but you are quick to through the mud around as it suits your agenda.
"you have actual pursuit coppers owning up (on TV) to enjoying the chase, when they admit it's a 'thrill' you know there is a problem."
I'm an actual artist and admit to it being a thrill when people appreciate and buy my artwork because that is my job. Of course they enjoyed chasing bad guys in cars because that's their fucking job and what they have been trained to do. I bet a surgeon get's an adrenaline buz when he brings someone back from the brink, your argument is stupid.
I am faily confident the number of criminal apprehended on a daily basis far and away mitigates for the number of people killed.
so like, 500 arrests for driving without insurance and only 4 bystanders killed - it's less than 1%!
Which is the same number of people killed by bees in 2010, what is your point? Are you going to suggest bees stop making honey because the collateral damage is too high?
the point was (unless you think you're living in a judge dredd movie), it's not really a rational trade off
Do you have any concept of the number of people that die every minute of every day in the world?
So that we can live in our little nice bubbles with our £20k of bike in the garage and our nice Mac Pro's and iPads and Cinema TV's, walk the Children to school in safe comfort we all have to accept that there will unfortunately be collateral damge in the fight against crime, seriously take a reality check! What do you expect the police to do hit some people with a daffodil and tell them not to do it again?
Yes it sucks that there is the problem and yes blah blah there should be a concerted effort for social change/mobility to stop crime and end poverty and the need for twoc's and police chase's etc etc but the reality is this is the situation we are in a Policing has to deal with what it is given.
yes, the rate of mortality is about 1 person per half a second, and around half of those are from causes attributed to poverty - I'm failing to see how those figures justify trading off more lives in pursuit of people who haven't paid their insurance
not sure of your "nice little bubbles" argument though, cos of bees! :o
Ok so you're drilling it down to "having not paid car insurance" now?
The point being made is that in the course of Police traffic pursuits there will be a degree of collateral damage caused - this is unfortunate but just look around you, this is life! (for the record in the UK the mortality rate is not down to poverty though that may be a cause, it is through Heart Disease, Cancer *Data published via ONS,Guardian).
Regarding the bees your quoted statistics, the same number of deaths arose from bees and wasps in the same period you quoted deaths from Police pursuits.
What do you exactly expect the police to do?
I expect the police the police to protect my family, my belongings and my way of life, I am also intelligent, cynical and laissez fare enough in my years to accept that in order for that way of life to continue unfortunately there will accidents...have you looked up number of deaths attributed to Paramedic, Fire service or Ambulance drivers in the same reported period?
firstly, I didn't quote deaths from police pursuits, I just gave you an example figure to show how ridiculous the idea was.
secondly, you seem to be using the idea of the cheapness of life to justify certain ideas - there is no "justifiable collateral damage policy" by the police in the UK for very obvious reasons and it shows a big difference in how the UK police differ from those in other nations.
thirdly, your perspective is only of your own position as an imagined law abiding citizen being protected by the police from the "bad criminals" - this is a very limited viewpoint - in many countries the police act as agents of a corrupt government, and the law is written to further their aims - this is clearly why such a policy of justifiable collateral damage would be a step backwards.
SP59 yet again you have fcuk all idea what your taking about when it comes to pursuits and driver training but its just your way of having a dig at the Police. Hypocritical piece of rubbish.
Anyone can challenge the sentence though of course it would be better if it was one of the family, but if someone here wants to challenge it that would be good, how about you Burt the Bike?
https://www.gov.uk/ask-crown-court-sentence-review
if all our society can offer this person is heroin then it seems quite obvious how to control his behaviour - trouble is that finding him something worthwhile to do would mean putting some cheap foreign worker out of an honest job
I wish people would give up on this lifetime driving ban because it is impossible to control and enforce.
Time for a mandatory prison sentence for anyone caught drving while banned. And, lifetime bans from driving.
The Americans seem a bit over the top with sentencing sometimes but we seem way too lenient. These people get off easy and the soft approach doesn't rehabilitate and is taken for weakness, so I'd just lock them away for longer and minimise their contact with normal people just wanting to do things like ride a bike without dying.
There has to be a better system of preventing dangerous, banned and unlicensed drivers from driving, as the one we've got clearly isn't working. I've lost count over the past few years of the number of stories of banned drivers getting back in their cars and causing danger and death.
Perhaps the advent of driverless cars will solve this, but I'd rather not have to wait twenty years.
Crush the car, possibly with them in it? Tie the car license and number plate to a specific driver ? Maybe we just ask the people who are so keen on licensing for cyclists, because they clearly know how that can be made to work!
5 years is an insult to the victim
What is the point of the bloody driving ban? He was driving with no insurance so I strongly suspect he'll have no problem driving without a license once he is released.
Good to see a custodial sentence but still seems short for the offense but maybe the limit for the charges he was tried on?
so that when he is caught driving again he can be prosecuted for driving while disqualified which can be treated more seriously than driving without a licence.
If if he hadn't received a ban too you'd be on here asking where his ban was.