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Drink-driver Vicky Hardy sentenced (Northumbria Police)Woman who drank "five pints and measure of spirit" before killing cyclist on drive home from pub jailed for six years
A drink-driver who drank "five pints and a measure of spirit" during an evening-long pub session before driving home, hitting and killing a cyclist while speeding at 38mph on a 30mph road has been sentenced to six years in prison.
Vicky Hardy was jailed at Newcastle Crown Court for her actions in the early hours of a morning in July 2022, the Sunderland Echo reports, CCTV from The Jolly Potter pub showing the 44-year-old consuming numerous drinks before getting into her car, despite being "unsteady on her feet", and attempting to drive home.
CCTV from a nearby hostel showed Hardy mounting the pavement as she tried to leave the pub's car park, the drink-driver soon after hitting and killing a "beloved" man described as "generous, kind and harmless" by his family.
Ali Reza Ghaisar was cycling on Hylton Road when Hardy hit him at 38mph as she attempted to drive the journey home of just over a mile from the pub she had spent around six hours at, drinking "five pints and a measure of spirit".
Mr Ghaisar was thrown across the road to the other side of the carriageway by the impact, the local press reporting that the court heard he was "fully lit up" but suffered catastrophic injuries caused by Hardy. Members of the public attempted CPR until paramedics arrived, but he died at the scene.
While those at the scene attempted to save Mr Ghaisar's life, Hardy fled but was caught on camera returning to the crash site, before again driving off and returning home.
Prosecutor Kevin Wardlaw told the sentencing hearing: "The defendant had spent the hours before the offence drinking with her partner in the public house the Jolly Potter just over a mile from the location of the incident. CCTV footage from the pub shows defendant arrive just after 7pm in the evening parking in the pub car park.
"Her home address at the time was about one-and-a-half miles from the premises. She remained there to about 1:15, during which time cameras showed her consuming about five pints and a measure of spirits. By the time the defendant left with her partner she appeared to be unsteady on her feet.
"A later analysis resulted in the calculation that the defendant was travelling at a speed of about 38mph on a road which is a 30mph limit. The defendant did not stop, only appearing to brake. The vehicle was seen to continue to travel east towards Hylton Road.
"The defendant called her mother to say she thought she had killed someone. Family members gathered at her address and attempts were made to get her to call police."
Hardy was arrested the following day, when officers were called to her address. Her legal representation, Tony Cornberg, told the hearing she just wants her "punishment to start", the judge subsequently jailing her for six years and adding an eight-year driving ban to the sentence.
In a victim impact statement, Mr Ghaisar's sister-in-law explained how the family had been in Turkey on holiday when a friend told them he had been killed.
"My mother-in-law was in our home country of Iran. I told her to get the first flight to the UK," she said. "I could not tell her over the phone what she was alone as she would have collapsed. When she arrived in the UK I told her her son was no longer with us. It's been two years since Ali was killed and for the last two years my mother-in-law has cried every day for her son. I have noticed a change in my husband since his brother was killed."
The sister-in-law also explained how Mr Ghaisar often met with refugees and members of the public in need, "would always put others before himself" and "would give his last penny even if it meant Ali had nothing".
"From the bottom of my heart, I urge the court to give justice to Ali," she said.
Dan is the road.cc news editor and has spent the past four years writing stories and features, as well as (hopefully) keeping you entertained on the live blog. Having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for the Non-League Paper, Dan joined road.cc in 2020. Come the weekend you'll find him labouring up a hill, probably with a mouth full of jelly babies, or making a bonk-induced trip to a south of England petrol station... in search of more jelly babies.
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36 comments
I don't want to spend too much time/effort defending this woman, but just to explain my logic:
Culpability B includes:
Driving at a speed that is inappropriate for the prevailing road or weather conditions (where not culpability A)
Driving impaired by consumption of alcohol and/or drugs (where not culpability A)
And also bear in mind that this is sentencing for the offence of causing death by dangerous driving - so we are considering where she falls within the scale of that offence. Even the lowest Culpability level was necessarily dangerous, and necessarily resulted in someone being killed, so those facts shouldn't be double counted to push the culpability up.
She was speeding, but I don't see that it would meet the "highly inappropriate" threshold for Culpability A. In isolation, 38 in a 30 zone is considered the lowest level for seriousness (and would normally be dealt with by a speed awareness course).
Similarly for impairment by alcohol - she clearly was impaired and no doubt over the legal limit (it's not reported if any samples were taken) but again, nothing stood out as justifying the "highly" wording (certainly when compared to some of the benders and binges reported in other incidents).
"Deliberate decision to ignore the rules of the road and disregard for the risk of danger to others" is a slightly odd thing to include - I find it hard to imagine the circumstances in which someone is convicted of dangerous driving without deliberately ignoring the rules of the road. Given that speed and alcohol are specified separately, there's nothing else about the manner of her driving that seems to fit this criteria.
Of course it's going to depend on the judge's interpretation but the Culpability B definition regarding speed ("Driving at a speed that is inappropriate for the prevailing road or weather conditions") would appear to me to imply not actually breaking the speed limit but doing something stupid like insisting on driving at 70 mph on the motorway even when fog has brought the visibility down to 50 m. Culpability A encompasses "Speed significantly in excess of speed limit": I take what you're saying about that sometimes being sanctioned with a course, but she was still doing nearly 30% over the speed limit, if I were a judge (and scarily you could do worse and it seems they often do) I would be comfortable calling 30% "significantly in excess of speed limit". Additionally the incident occurred at 1:15 am, so a case for saying that driving at that speed in the dark was indeed "highly inappropriate". Also, I would say that it is possible to categorise her as "highly impaired by consumption of alcohol" as CCTV shows her mounting the pavement as she drove out of the pub car park.
I don't disagree with your interpretation, it is perfectly possible to interpret the guidelines that way, but I would say that if a judge was actually determined to apply higher sanctions, as I think we nearly all agree they should've done, there is enough there in her behaviour for it to be interpreted as meeting the highest level of culpability.
Something else you have to take into account is when her guilty plea was taken. If she pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity the judge can give up to 1/3 off the sentence. So if HH Moreland thought it was worth a nine year sentence, the early guilty plea will reduce the actual sentence down to six years. (The discount varies as to when the guilty plea is taken so a guilty plea just before a trial starts would only warrant perhaps a 5% reduction in the sentence - the judge doesn't have to give 1/3 off either, it is discretionary but they have to give reasons for stepping outside of the guidelines etc. and leave themselves open to appeal if it appears unduly harsh (or lenient) in doing so. Generally 1/3 off is always given for early guilty plea.
There's also a balance to be struck. Giving the maximum sentence leaves no scope for proportionate sentencing for more serious cases.
Well, yes, point taken, but I can't think of anything much more serious than killing someone because you're pissed and speeding down a residential street at 1.15AM.
Killing more than one
There are no easy answers or sentences in this sort of case and no sentence will ever compensate the victims.
What's more annoying / saddening is that (most of the present company excepted) most people don't give a flying fig about this and it won't be the last time it happens as almost nobody will stop, think and change their behaviour.
Yes, I suppose that would attract a higher sentence although I've never seen the logic to that, if a person is driving drunk and speeding and hits and kills a cyclist it's sheer luck that there was one cyclist there and not two or three in a group, so it's not really logical (to my mind) for the sentence to be lowered on the basis that they "only" killed one person.
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