Teenager ‘let down by justice system’ after Loughborough driver avoids jail

The family of a teenage driver injured in a head-on crash feel “let down by the police and the system” after the young man from Loughborough[1] who caused the collision avoided going to jail. David Stack’s father told Nottingham Crown Court[2], “I just think we have been sold short”, after hearing that 24-year-old Aaron Le would not be locked up. Le had caused the crash by overtaking at high speed on a blind summit.

He ended up crashing into Mr Stack, 18. The teenager only suffered minor injuries in the crash, which happened near Ruddington in Nottinghamshire, but has been suffering recurring nightmares about the incident in which he is killed. NottinghamshireLive reported that[3] Mr Stack’s father told the court: “I just think we have been sold short.

The system has let us down. We have been let down by the police and let down by the system. This is not justice.

We came here for justice.” Handing Le a six-month jail term, suspended for two years, Judge Michael Auty KC said: “I recognise there is tension and I recognise there is a victim in court who feels aggrieved by the system and who will hold little truck with the sentencing guidelines, but [the guideline] is there for a purpose and I must honour it.” He told Le: “You effected an overtaking manoeuvre on the brow of a hill and it was a highly-dangerous manoeuvre, which could have easily have resulted in one or more fatalities.

“It is sometimes bewildering for those of us who sit in these courts hearing cases like this how it is, that after a collision that results in the kind of damage I can see in the photos, people actually survive at all.” Esther Harrison, prosecuting, said the incident happened on the A60 between Ruddington and Bunny at around 9.20pm on March 2, 2023. She said a witness who was driving away from Nottingham in his car was overtaken at more than the 50mph limit by the defendant, who was behind the wheel of a high-powered Toyota Supra.

The prosecutor said Le went over the solid white centre line and failed to see Mr Stack, who was driving in the direction of Ruddington and who also had a passenger in his car. Miss Harrison said: “The witness tried to slow down to allow the defendant time to pull in but he was too close and was going too fast, and there was a head-on collision. “Both cars rolled over, and Mr Stack’s car ended up in a hedge and was a complete write-off, and he was taken to hospital.

There were no permanent injuries but he says there is still discomfort when he turns his head.” Miss Harrison read out a victim impact statement made by Mr Stack. In it, he said he had been diagnosed with clinical depression and posttraumatic stress disorder since the collision.

In the statement, he said: “I am constantly getting flashbacks, and when I have nightmares there are one million outcomes to the crash and they are all fatal. I am paranoid of other drivers, and it has made me a horrendously anxious passenger. “I have lost friends.

I cannot see one because I would have to drive past the crash scene to see him, and another no longer trusts my driving. I feel betrayed.” Le, of King Crescent North, Loughborough, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, and has no convictions or cautions to his name.

Harry Bowyer, mitigating, said the defendant worked as a software engineer, specialising in the financial market, and that if he were sent immediately to prison it would mean the defendant’s partner, who was in court to support him, would have to give up the flat they lived in together.

He said: “This was a gross error of judgement.

The road itself, which your honour knows very well, is straight.” As part of the suspended sentence order, the judge ordered Le to carry out 150 hours unpaid work and disqualified him from driving for three years.

References

1. ^ Loughborough (www.leicestermercury.co.uk)
2. ^ Nottingham Crown Court (www.leicestermercury.co.uk)
3. ^ NottinghamshireLive reported that (www.nottinghampost.com)
4. ^ Car salesman was armed with flick knife due to his criminal past involvement with city gangs (www.leicestermercury.co.uk)