Asbo teen jailed for killing pensioner (From Sutton Guardian)

Asbo teen jailed for killing pensioner

5:05pm Friday 14th March 2008

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A teen with a string of motoring offences - including an Asbo banning him from driving - killed a pensioner while behind the wheel of a stolen car.

Speed hungry Jason Brandford, 17, was driving on the wrong side of the road and without a license or insurance when he ploughed into 76-year-old Daniel Hill's Vauxhall Astra.

"A family has lost a much-loved husband, father and brother. Nothing I can do can assuage their grief."

Judge Hezlett Colgan

Mr Hill, a "much-loved" dad-of-one, died from multiple injuries following the smash in May last year.

Asbo

Brandford, who had received an Asbo for stealing a Jaguar X-type the year before, fled from the scene.

Last Thursday the youth, who has a string of previous convictions for driving offences, was locked up for five years after pleading guilty to causing death by dangerous driving. But he was told he will only have to serve half his sentence.

Prosecutor, Guy Ladenburg, told Isleworth Crown Court that an hour before the fatal collision, a witness had seen Brandford hurtling along the road at 70mph, causing dozens of cars to veer out of the way and almost crashing into a double-decker bus.

Later the silver Subaru Brandford he was driving - which had been stolen earlier by someone else - hit Mr Hill's Vauxhall Astra in Elmwood Avenue, Feltham.

The defendant got out of the Subaru and ran away from the scene of the crash shouting "call an ambulance".

He was caught after police linked him to DNA found on the Subaru's airbag.

Grief

Judge Hezlett Colgan said: "A family has lost a much-loved husband, father and brother. Nothing I can do can assuage their grief."

Brandford, of Tensing Ave, Ashford, was given a five-year detention sentence for causing death by dangerous driving and a six-month term to run concurrently for driving a stolen vehicle. He was also disqualified from driving for seven years.

He had also admitted driving without insurance, failing to stop at the scene of an accident and driving without a license.

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