Morning:
13°c
Jailed Labour peer to walk free after winning appeal over M-way texting
Paul Cheston12.03.09
Labour peer Lord Ahmed this afternoon won his appeal against a 12-week sentence for sending and receiving text messages shortly before a fatal motorway accident.
He had been jailed at Sheffield crown court last month after admitting dangerous driving but was not in court to hear the Appeal Court ruling in London.
It is understood he will walk out of Doncaster Prison tomorrow morning following the completion of formalities in the wake of the ruling.
Lord Ahmed, 51, has served 16 days in prison, and was due to be released a week tomorrow anyway.
The peer had been involved in an accident which left a man dead on the M1 near Rotherham, South Yorkshire, on Christmas Day 2007.
In imprisoning him, the sentencing judge, Mr Justice Wilkie, had made it clear the text messaging had finished two minutes before the accident took place and was not connected to the crash.
In allowing Lord Ahmed's appeal against the sentence, Lady Justice Hallett said a jail term had been justified.
But she was persuaded that the court could now take an "exceptional" course and suspend the 12 weeks for 12 months.
The sentence had been a severe embarrassment to Justice Secretary Jack Straw at a time when he was considering kicking peers out of the House of Lords if they are convicted of criminal offences.
The Government has come under pressure for reform after claims that Labour peers had accepted money to change legislation.
In sentencing Lord Ahmed, the judge at Sheffield crown court also imposed a one-year driving ban and ordered the peer to pay £500 prosecution costs, which still stands despite the Appeal Court decision.
Lord Ahmed had driven onto the M1 at Dewsbury before exchanging a series of five text messages with a journalist, all of which were described in court as substantial, rather than a few words. The peer was travelling at about 60mph.
Two minutes or nearly two miles after the messages ended Lord Ahmed's Jaguar hit an Audi.
Its driver, Martyn Gombar, 28, had crashed minutes earlier and is thought to have been trying to retrieve his mobile phone from the vehicle.
The court was told that tests showed father-of-two Mr Gombar had been drinking before crashing his car into the central reservation, spinning it round in total darkness.
Reader views (6)
This whole thing was just a propaganda exercise by government. It was to send a warning to all drivers. Watch out or this is what will happen to you! Our courts are a joke.
- Lee, London
He broke the law.
- James Macleod Ritchie, Oyster Bay Cove
You said it, Hilton. Anyone else would have had the book thrown at them. Bunch of clowns!
- Deenube, London
Disgrace.
- Stephen Curry, Barnet
One law for them and another for us, this is disgusting.
- Hilton Gray, London, UK
It was right that he appealed and as set free. He may have acted like a fool for texting and driving at the same time, but he was not responsible for that death. Focus now on the drunk driver who was seriously at fault.
- Dhanraj, basildon
