A speeding driver who caused the death of a pedestrian when he struck him as he was crossing the road in Huddersfield, has been jailed for 50 months.
Debanjan Basak was driving his father’s high performance blue BMW 3 home from a gym when he hit Alistair Duncan, 58 in Wakefield Road on the evening of May 15 last year.
Jailing him at Leeds Crown Court, the Recorder of Leeds, Judge Peter Collier QC said he had driven at a “grossly excessive speed” for the circumstances, a built up area near a pub.
Basak had been driving close to a “mate” Imran Shakoor with whom he had been at the Total Fitness gym and who was driving a BMW 525 when both were recorded as speeding in the road.
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Heather Gilmore prosecuting said the crown accepted they were “not racing” but both were captured on CCTV outside a laundry, going well over the 30 mile speed limit, Basek at an average of 70 and Shakoor around 60.
A collision investigator estimated Basek was slowing but still doing around 51 mph when he struck Mr Duncan, who had left The Stag pub and was crossing the road.
Basak’s car had driven on through the traffic lights but reversed back when he realised he had struck someone.
Shakoor also stopped his car and returned to the scene where others were trying to help Mr Duncan.
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Jonathan Turner representing Basak said he had shown real remorse for the devastating consequences of his “youthful exuberance and adrenaline rush” driving a performance car. He had saved £10,000 which could in no way compensate the family of the victim but he was offering to pay to charity if they saw fit. “He does not intend that to be insulting it is simply all he has to his name.”
Andrew Dallas for Shakoor said he accepted driving too fast after he and Basak had both left the gym a short distance away around the same time.
A self-employed dental technician “he finds himself being sentenced against the background of this fatal collision.”
Basak, 24 of Chaffinch Walk, Netherton, admitted causing Mr Duncan’s death by dangerous driving and fraud. In addition to 50 months in jail he was disqualified from driving for seven years.
Judge Collier told him speed limits were being reduced all over the country to make life safer for those on and around the streets. “It is encumbent on all of us to observe those speed limits.”
“There is no question had you been driving within the speed limit the accident, that collision, would not have happened, but you were driving at what was clearly a grossly excessive speed in those circumstances and as a result a collision took place and he has died.”
He said Mr Duncan had suffered some damage at birth which had resulted in him suffering significant learning difficulties but that was not the full story. He was someone who had been determined to improve himself.
He had led an industrious life working for the parks and gardens department and when his mother’s health began to decline he devoted himself to caring for her.
The judge said it was one of the tragedies following his death that his mother was not able to understand he had gone and was constantly asking for him “only to be told on a regular basis that he has died and goes through the fresh bereavement pain on each of these occasions.”
Shakoor, 38 of Fell Grove, Sheepridge, Huddersfield admitted dangerous driving and was given a six month prison sentence suspended for 18 months with 225 hours unpaid work and disqualified from driving for two years.
