Drink-driver who killed six people has jail sentence cut by five years
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails
Sign up to our free breaking news emails
Sign up to our free breaking news emails
Relatives left bereaved by a driver who killed six people after drinking 13 pints of lager voiced astonishment yesterday when his jail sentence was cut by a third.
Peter Noble was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment in March last year, the most severe punishment for causing death by dangerous driving in legal history. He had drunk the lager and two alcopops during a motorised pub crawl with friends in Sheffield in July 2000. His Toyota Land Cruiser collided with a Daewoo car, killing three people in the Daewoo and three in his own vehicle. The Land Cruiser was travelling at 80mph. Noble, 41, a former demolition foreman, was banned from driving at the time of the crash and lied throughout the investigation.
Yesterday, Lord Justice Keene, sitting with two other judges at the Court of Appeal, cut Noble's sentence to 10 years, despite observing that it was "difficult realistically to imagine a worse case".
Noble's lawyers argued that 15 years was "out of proportion ... [and] wrong in principle". They said the consecutive sentences imposed on Noble at his trial were inappropriate and the correct sentencing bracket was eight to nine years. "There are very few cases where nothing can be said in the appellant's favour," said Robert Smith QC, for Noble. "It would be wrong of the court not to give him credit for his employment history, his devotion to his own family and the fact that he eventually confessed that he had lied to the police."
Heather Rodgers, a relative of Diane Holmes who died in the crash, said: "We are disgusted. It's a travesty of justice that a repeat offender for drink-driving like Peter Noble can have his sentence reduced by five years.The judge said there was an element of chance but those chances are much greater when you ... drink so much."
Tony Dring, a former chairman of the Campaign Against Drinking and Driving, said consecutive sentences were appropriate. "It really boils down to how you value human life. What that man did was so dreadful. It was six lives. I would like to have seen 60 years, served consecutively."
Although the number of people killed is a factor in sentencing, it is considered in law to be beyond the driver's control. So although deaths are recorded individually on charge sheets, consecutive sentences are generally not handed down on conviction.
Sentences passed on motorists such as Gary Hart, who caused 10 deaths in the Selby rail crash by falling asleep at the wheel of his car, have generally been influenced by aggravating factors such as dishonesty or lack of remorse.
Mr Justice Keene ordered the sentences to run concurrently, producing a total of 10 years – still the stiffest punishment given for the crime.