Drug driver laughs before being jailed over crash that killed brother and nephew

A dangerous driver who killed his brother and 12-year-old nephew when he hit a tree while four times the drug drive limit has been jailed.

Michael Webb, 35, lost control of his Skoda Octavia while attempting to undertake a BMW at almost double the speed limit on August 30 last year.

The car tore in two when it crashed into a tree, killing his brother, Peter Webb, 40, and Peter’s son, Ben.

Webb, of South Shields, was pictured laughing on his way into Newcastle Crown Court where he was jailed for 13 and a half years after pleading guilty to two counts of causing death by dangerous driving.

Ashleigh Webb, Peter’s wife and Ben’s mum, tearfully told the court that ‘no sentence will ever be long enough’ as she said her brother-in-law’s driving had always been ‘an accident waiting to happen’.

She described her horror when police officers arrived at her home to say her husband had been in a crash, and realising their son was with him.

Mrs Webb said she initially told the officers her two children were in bed and went upstairs to get confirmation – only to ‘turn cold when the realisation came over me that Ben was with Peter’.

She said her husband and son ‘were picked up by a man who called himself their brother and uncle, and willingly and purposefully put their lives in danger’.

‘He drove so dangerously and with so little consideration for anyone. He took my little boy away,’ Mrs Webb said.

‘Ben had no choice about getting in that car. You were the adult and it was your responsibility to protect him.

‘I will never get the answers I search for. Was my little boy scared? Did he shout for me? Was Peter shouting to slow down?’

She told the court she had not received an apology from Webb, and that images had been posted online of him smoking cannabis and drinking while on bail, saying it ‘shows a complete lack of remorse’.

Mrs Webb told her brother-in-law: ‘Peter previously made it known he didn’t like the way you drove… Michael, you have always been this way with cars.

‘You were an accident waiting to happen.’

She said she had been ‘genuinely terrified’ as a passenger in his car before and asked him to slow down, but he would just ‘laugh and continue’.

‘I felt you enjoyed the power you had of your passengers being helpless,’ she said.

Mrs Webb added: ‘No sentence will ever be long enough in my eyes for the destruction and recklessness he has caused.’

The court heard Webb was likely to have been driving at about 73mph on the 40mph limit John Reid Road, South Shields, when he tried to undertake a BMW.

Emma Dowling, prosecuting, said he applied emergency braking, probably realising that the BMW driver was indicating and trying to move into the inside lane for him to overtake.

Webb lost control of the car and hit a lamppost, then a tree, with the impact tearing the car in two and killing his brother: joiner Peter Webb, who was in the front passenger seat wearing a seatbelt.

Ms Dowling said Benjamin Webb, aged 12, was sitting in the back seat and was propelled, with the rear of the car, back into the carriageway.

The court heard Webb had joined his brother and nephew who were watching football at a pub earlier in the day.

He drank one pint, before going back to his house and returning later to pick them up at about 8.50pm.

Witnesses who saw Webb’s car in the minutes before the crash estimated his speed as between 70mph and 90mph, with one describing it as ‘crazy dangerous’.

The BMW driver later told police he had overtaken another car and tried to move into the inside lane to make way for Webb, who was approaching him at speed from behind, but was ‘shocked’ to see Webb had already moved into the inside lane.

He said his pregnant partner, who was a passenger in the car, screamed as she saw the crash.

Webb, who was also injured in the crash, was found to have a ‘very low’ level of alcohol in his blood, but was found to be more than double the limit for cocaine, and four times the limit for cocaine breakdown product Benzoylecgonine (BZE).

Judge Tim Gittins told Webb: ‘You should have been nowhere near the driving seat of any vehicle, let alone one carrying two passengers.’

The judge said: ‘The stark reality is that you were a serious or fatal accident waiting to happen that night by the manner of your driving.

‘It was, sadly, an entirely avoidable tragedy.’

Judge Gittins banned Webb from driving for 15 years and five months, and said he must take an extended driving test before he can get behind the wheel again.

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