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Met Police
Steven Palmer, 28, crashed a borrowed Honda Civic into an Audi driven by barmaid Louise Clark while driving down the wrong side of the road on December 30 last year. He fled the scene without stopping or calling emergency services.
38-year old Clark died nine days later when her family took the decision to take her off life support.
Isleworth crown court heard that Palmer had been travelling in excess of the speed limit and lost control on a bend in Uxbridge, West London, when the fatal crash occurred.
Witnesses stated that Palmer had been tailgaiting cars and had undertaken a dangerous overtaking manouvre in the moments leading up to the collision.
He had previously been banned from driving eight times and had never actually been granted a full licence.
Now Clark's family have criticised Palmer's five-and-a-half year sentence for causing death by dangerous driving, causing death by driving while unlicenced, driving while disqualified and being uninsured, as being unduly lenient.
Speaking to The Mirror, Clark's mother Beryl said: "He shouldn't have been on the road and he shouldn't be allowed on the road when he comes out of prison.
"But whatever happens, he's going to do exactly the same because he's been disqualified before and gone in and out of prison. He's going to come out of prison and do exactly the same again.
"He might kill two people next time. He's already done one. The next time it could be two."
At the time of the collision Palmer was already banned from driving for crashing into a pensioner's living room while trying to evade police in 2009. He was jailed for 12 months as well as being handed a five-year driving ban.
He had also previously been convicted of aggravated vehicle taking, drink driving and driving without a licence and insurance.