A driver who threw his dashcam into another car after killing a great-grandmother as she crossed the road has had his prison sentence increased.
Tasham Mahmood fatally injured 69-year-old Carol Andrew when he collided with her on White Lee Road in Heckmondwike, West Yorkshire, in July 2021.
He threw his dashcam into the car of a motorist who stopped at the scene, but the device was later recovered.
Mahmood, 34, was jailed for four years in April this year, but the case was referred to the Court of Appeal by the Solicitor General, on the grounds that it was “unduly lenient”.
Three senior judges have now increased the sentence to six years and four months.
In their judgement Lord Justice Singh, Mrs Justice May and Mrs Justice Thornton said Ms Andrew’s death was “tragic and needless”, and offered “sincere sympathy” to her family.
They said dashcam footage showed the “appalling nature of the offender’s driving over a sustained period of time”.
Lord Justice Singh said: “The offender drove dangerously and without regard to the safety of other road users. He performed dangerous manoeuvres.”
Ms Andrew was walking home with her dog as she crossed White Lee Road in Heckmondwike when she was struck by Mahmood’s Seat Leon.
He had overtaken several vehicles, drove through three red lights and reached speeds of more than 80mph before hitting her.
The mother-of-two, grandmother-of-four and great-grandmother-of-one suffered multiple injuries and died at the scene.
Mahmood admitted causing Ms Andrew’s death in January and was sentenced at Leeds Crown Court in April.
The Court of Appeal heard Mahmood was driving home after being told his brother was “seriously unwell”, with his sibling dying later that night.
His barristers said “mercy” was a “necessary feature” of the case, and that the sentence should not be increased.
Helen Chapman, for Mahmood, said: “I would invite the court to be slow to disturb the sentence of a judge who was in the best possible position to weigh up all the relevant features.”
But Louise Oakley, for the Solicitor General, said the sentencing judge had given too much weight to mitigating features in the case, including that Mahmood had shown remorse, suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and flashbacks, and had suffered other family bereavements.
She said said they “did not serve to reduce the offender’s culpability or the seriousness of the offence”.
She said Ms Andrew’s family described her as a “warm, popular and much-loved woman” with an “active social life”, and that her death had “devastated the entire family and turned their world upside down”.
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