A drink driver who smashed into a rickshaw killing a Welsh woman had had three years added to his sentence. Luis Balcazar Soto was driving without a licence and twice the drink-drive limit when he hit the rickshaw throwing Sophie Strickland out of the vehicle.
The 31-year-old, who had been in London celebrating her birthday, died in the collision at Elephant and Castle. The rickshaw driver, Tanvir Ahmed, was seriously injured and left with life changing injuries.
Soto, now 25, was initially jailed for nine years and nine months for after he admitted causing death by dangerous driving, causing serious injury by dangerous driving, acting in breach of a restraining order – by seeing his former partner – and breaching a suspended sentence. However this has now been increased after his sentence was referred to the Court of Appeal by the Solicitor General as Unduly Lenient.
On 25 January 2023 Balcazar Soto’s original sentence was quashed and substituted by a total sentence of 12 years and 9 months’ imprisonment. The Solicitor General Michael Tomlinson KC MP said: "Today all my thoughts are with the family and friends of Sophie Strickland, whose life was so tragically cut short by the criminally dangerous driving of Luis Fernando Balcazar Soto.
"I want to pay tribute to Sophie’s family, who have shown immense strength and courage during such a desperately difficult time. I referred this case to the Court of Appeal and chose to personally present it because I believed the original sentence was Unduly Lenient.
"I’m pleased that the court has ordered Luis Fernando Balcazar Soto serve a prison term which is a more appropriate reflection of the dreadful harm that he has caused."
Miss Strickland, from from Hay-on-Wye, in mid Wales, had travelled to London to celebrate her birthday with friends when the tragedy happened in the early hours of July 10 last year. Southwark Crown Court was told at the initial hearing last November, how she and a friend, Jade Redford, had stopped to use a cash machine at a branch of Tesco Express.
Ms Redford had told the hearing the pair were heading back to their hotel after having what she described as "one of the best nights of their lives". She said: "Sophie and I were laughing to almost the very last second.”
But just after Ms Strickland had got back into the rickshaw the pedcab was ploughed into by Soto's silver Kia. Ms Redford, who was uninjured in the incident, returned to the vehicle to find her friend lying among the wreckage.
Soto, whose former partner and friend were in the car with him, was described by witnesses as “driving like a madman” as he hit speeds of up to 70mph. Soto tried to flee the scene but was stopped by witnesses.
