Banned driver jailed for crash deaths

Banned driver jailed for crash deaths

Darren Williams ploughed the car into a tree

A Birmingham drink-driver who killed two of his teenage passengers while defying his 13th ban from the roads has been jailed for nine years.

Darren Williams, who has never taken a driving test and had served a 30-month prison term for killing another passenger in 1989, had taken cannabis and drank heavily, before last August's fatal crash.

Judge Alistair McCreath said Williams, 32, had an "appalling driving record," and also banned him from driving for ten years.

Williams, of Bantams Close, Stechford, Birmingham, admitted drink-driving, driving while disqualified and causing the death of his friends Matthew Crew, 16, and Alan Wright, 19, at a previous hearing.

Your driving was dreadful and at high speed.

Judge Alistair McCreath

Birmingham Crown Court court heard Williams was on his way back from a pub in Solihull when he collided with a taxi and spun out of control in Bromford Lane, Erdington.

Mr Crew and Mr Wright were pronounced dead at the scene.

A third passenger, a 16-year-old girl, suffered multiple fractures when she was thrown from the car.

Judge McCreath said: "The court obviously cannot restore life to those who you so recklessly killed.

"When you drove in the way that led to these deaths you were a disqualified driver - a driver with an absolutely appalling driving record.

"You had that evening taken cannabis and had drank heavily. Your driving was dreadful and at high speed."

Tim Green, defending, told the judge that his client had developed an obsession with cars after an unhappy childhood.