Hit-and-run driver Brett Kingsley got £700 insurance pay-out after fatal Adam O’Toole crash
Jul 20 2010 by Sam Casey, Huddersfield Daily Examiner
A SECOND judge has questioned why a hit-and-run driver has not been charged with killing student Adam O’Toole.
Brett Kingsley from Oldham was behind the wheel of the Rover 200 car that ran down the 18-year-old on New Hey Road in Salendine Nook on March 6, 2007.
Adam, who went to nearby Huddersfield New College and lived at Woodhead Road in Holmbridge, died at the scene from head injuries.
Kingsley, 25, drove off after the incident and later told his family, Oldham police and his insurers his car had been damaged in an accidental collision in a car park.
He received a £700 insurance pay-out – minus the £420 excess on his policy – and the car was disposed of.
Kingsley was only tracked down when officers investigating Adam’s death received a tip-off in February of this year.
He was initially arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving, but will now be sentenced for a single offence of perverting the course of justice in relation to the lie he told about the damage to his car.
In June when Kingsley pleaded guilty to that charge at Bradford Crown Court, Judge Jonathan Rose asked why he was not facing a more serious allegation.
At a hearing at Bradford Crown Court yesterday, Judge Alistair McCallum also questioned the case.
He said: “Has someone approved that he should only be charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice?
He added: “The sort of sentence I’m going to be limited to is going to ignore the death of the victim.”
Dave Mackay, prosecuting, told the judge that, on the basis of witness statements and evidence from the time, a charge of death by dangerous driving would not be appropriate.
He said the charge of death by careless driving which he could have faced did not exist in 2007.
He added: “The difficulty we have, and I have spoken at length with the deceased’s family, is that had this offence occurred last week or the week before that and had he (Kingsley) stopped or co-operated, the offence would have been death without due care.”
Kingsley was due to be sentenced yesterday for perverting the course of justice.
