Devastated friends and family bitterly reacted to the sentence handed down to a drink driver who caused the death of a young carer when had had been banned from the roads just one month before. Jessica Drury, 25, of Bulwell, died at the scene in Southwell Road, Oxton, at around 8.10pm on January 19 this year.
Her vehicle ended up in a ditch after Matthew Adrian Plimmer, of Raylawn Street, Mansfield, ploughed into her - more than 14 years after he caused the death by dangerous driving of a passenger. Back then Plimmer, 35, had been driving in 2006 in Letchworth, Hertfordshire, without an MOT, at speed and without insurance when he lost control and crashed, causing fatal injuries to his passenger.
He was further banned in December 2021 for drink-driving, and should not have been behind the wheel, when he veered onto the wrong side of Southwell Road, Oxton, smashing into Jessica's Fiat Punto head-on, killing her.
READ MORE:Nottinghamshire man accused of possessing cannabis faces 8 month wait for trial
Plimmer pleaded guilty to causing her death by driving whilst disqualified and causing death by careless driving whilst over the drink drive limit. He received a headline sentence of nine years, with a three-year extended licence on release, and a lifelong driving ban.
Her best friend Leanne Rowlett, 25, of Hucknall, said after the sentence was "a bit of an insult to close family and friends". Plimmer, she said, is a "repeat offender" and he has taken a life, twice. "The punishment should be harsher," she told Nottinghamshire Live.
"I feel he will come out and he will do it again". However, she praised the judge, who sentenced Plimmer, a self-employed plumber, according to the guidelines, but said that the sentencing should have been harsher.
And friend Nicole Smith, 22, of Kirkby, described Jessica as bubbly and "always thought about everyone else". "She had the biggest heart", she added. Jason Denham, Jessica's uncle, read out a statement on behalf of Angela Harrison, Jessica's mum, and step-dad Peter Harrison to the court.
Fighting back tears, he told the hearing how Jessica's mother had to face "every mother's worst nightmare". Mr Denham told Nottinghamshire Live: "No sentence is long enough".
Aunt Marianne Menham had hoped the new law, for causing a death whilst driving, which sees defendants face a possible maximum sentence of life imprisonment, had been in play at the time. But this only came into force on June 28 this year.
Step-dad Peter Harrison got to know Jessica when she was two-and-a-half years old. He said the sentenced Plimmer received was "never going to be enough" - but was more than he expected.
She was a one-off," he said of Jessica. "You will never get another Jess. She was definitely bespoke". Friend Tillie Hayes said described Jessica as a "beautiful friend".
She hopes others will think before they get behind the wheel - when they could endanger others. James Horne, mitigating, told the court Plimmer's previous convictions "grossly aggravated his position".
Plimmer, a devoted son to his parents and a father of two, lied at the scene after the accident, claming someone else was driving, but forensic evidence showed he was the driver from blood and salvia.
Judge Stuart Rafferty KC, who sentenced him on Friday (November 11), said Plimmer was disqualified for 20 months at the time of the crash. He referred to Plimmer's driving that day as "not a one-off" - he had the vehicle for at least two months before and had been driving it on a "daily basis".
He said Plimmer was driving it to the pub on a regular basis and, he must have known he was over the legal limit for all of that time, and an ongoing danger to people on the road.
At the scene of the accident on January 19, after a drinking session at the pub, Plimmer's behaviour was "frankly despicable," added the judge. Plimmer had said to people who stopped that there had not been another motorist involved and he did not know what had happened to the driver of the Audi he was in.
"All you were thinking about was you," added the judge.
READ NEXT:
'Much-loved' grandad died after speeding driver crashed into him on busy Nottingham road
Jury in murder trial of Michael Anton O'Connor watch CCTV and reconstruction
Large quantity of crack cocaine was stored by others at man's home
Fatal Nottingham crash which killed grandad was circulated on WhatsApp
