Uninsured driver who fatally hit boy, 7, jailed

An uninsured driver who fatally injured a seven-year-old boy has been jailed for three-and-a-half years.

Jack Rooke died in hospital after he stepped out in front of the BMW Nathan Shaw was driving along Longfield Avenue, in the Golcar area of Huddersfield, on 30 August 2023.

Shaw, 35, who produced forged documents in an effort to claim he had been insured at the time of the collision, was jailed after pleading guilty to causing death while driving uninsured and two counts of perverting the course of justice.

In a victim impact statement, Jack's mother said she "can't accept that Jack has gone and I never will".

She added: "Travelling in the ambulance with Jack, seeing the paramedics trying to save his life, then being told that he had gone, is a parent's worst nightmare that one no-one should have to go through."

Leeds Crown Court heard an investigation into Jack's death had found the collision itself was "unavoidable".

However, the court heard Shaw had been stopped by police while driving the BMW the previous month and told he was not insured to drive the vehicle.

It was said the defendant produced forged papers at Kirklees Magistrates Court in December 2023, when summonsed for that incident.

He later gave fake documents to the police in an effort to demonstrate he had been insured at the time of the fatal collision.

When officers seized his phone as part of a subsequent investigation, it was found Shaw had contacted someone called 'Insurance Lad Bradford' over WhatsApp and had offered to "pay extra money" for fake backdated insurance papers.

Father-of-four Shaw, of Tudor Street in Huddersfield, had previously pleaded guilty to causing death while driving uninsured and two counts of perverting the course of justice.

Sentencing, Judge Simon Phillips KC described Shaw's efforts to cover his tracks as a "tissue of lies" and said the grief of Jack's family had been "compounded" by the knowledge he had been hit by an uninsured driver.

Det Sgt Nina Roper said: "The death of Jack has been an absolute tragedy for his family as his mother's victim family statement so movingly illustrates.

"The loss of such a loving and happy boy at such a young age has clearly been absolutely devastating, and the scale of their loss is hard for many of us to comprehend."

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