Adam O’Toole's killer: Oldham man pleads guilty to insurance fraud

Jun 17 2010 Huddersfield Daily Examiner

LOVED ones of hit-and-run victim Adam O’Toole have spoken of their anger towards the cowardly driver who kept up a three-year lie.

Brett Kingsley, 25, fled after colliding with 18-year-old Huddersfield New College student Adam on New Hey Road in Salendine Nook on March 6, 2007.

He later claimed he had been the victim of criminal damage to explain away the dents in his car and made a claim to the insurance company for repairs.

It was not until February of this year, following a tip-off to the police, that Kingsley was arrested.

Yesterday at Bradford Crown Court he pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice over the false insurance claim.

Now he is awaiting sentence – and has been warned he could go to jail.

The Crown Prosecution Service said there was not enough evidence to charge him with death by dangerous driving – despite a verdict of unlawful killing at Adam’s inquest in July 2008.

Adam’s mother, Beverley, told the Examiner about the heartache Kingsley, of Cecil Street in Oldham, had caused.

She said: “The police say Kingsley didn’t stop because he panicked.

“When he went to fill in a false insurance claim he wasn’t panicking. When he went to the police station to fill in a crime report he wasn’t panicking.

“Since March 6 2007, we have had to cope with the loss of Adam. If he had come forward I wouldn’t have had to live with the unknown for the last three years.

“I could have let Adam rest in peace, I could have grieved. But the fact that he put up this pretence for so long robbed me of that.