A couple who fled the scene of a motorway crash that saw a schoolgirl killed after being thrown from a car will not have time added to their prison sentences.
Hannah Jones and boyfriend Safeer Iqbal were involved in a collision on the M61 after Jones lost control of Iqbal's Vauxhall Corsa and hit Nissan Qashqai's vehicle in July 2019, reports the Manchester Evening News.
As a result, Sana Patel, aged 12 was thrown from the family car and suffered fatal injuries, being pronounced dead at the scene of the horrific collision. But as the young girl lay dying, Jones and Iqbal called a taxi to return to West Yorkshire.
A trial at Preston Town Court heard the pair had been at a party on the night of the collision, according to LancsLive.
The court heard Jones' boyfriend had been drinking so she offered to drive his car home despite being uninsured on the vehicle. Motorists on the road described the car being driven 'erratically' at reported speeds of up to 90mph in nearby Chorley.
Sana was not wearing a seatbelt at the time she was ejected from the car, with the accused couple claiming Iqbal was the driver rather than Jones. Yet the woman was convicted of causing Sana's death by careless driving, both were also convicted of perverting the course of justice. The court heard they lied during the investigation about who was responsible for the crash.
Jones was jailed for 18 months in March and handed a driving ban of two years while Iqbal was jailed for eight months and banned from driving for a year. The case was then referred to the Attorney General for consideration under the unduly lenient sentence scheme.
In the case of this process, it would have been referred then to the Court of Appeal to decide if the sentencing on the pair should be increased. However, a spokesperson from the office of the Attorney General said the threshold is 'high' for further sentencing.
They said: “The Solicitor General was deeply saddened by this case and wishes to express his sympathies to the family of Sana Patel. After careful consideration the Solicitor General has concluded that this case cannot properly be referred to the Court of Appeal.
"A referral under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme to the Court of Appeal can only be made if a sentence is not just lenient but unduly so, such that the sentencing judge made a gross error or imposed a sentence outside the range of sentences reasonably available in the circumstances of the offence. The threshold is a high one, and the test was not met in this case.”
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