Driver banned after dad died in his car is caught back behind the wheel

A DAD of young twins, who was banned from the roads for an incident in which his father died in a crash, was caught behind the wheel just two months later.

Derby Crown Court heard Damien McCormack’s 55-year-old father was killed when McCormack lost control of a vehicle and hit a wall.

McCormack, 32, who was speeding at 79mph in a 30mph limit at the time, was handed a suspended sentence for dangerous driving. Weeks after, he was spotted driving around a Derbyshire housing estate and pulled over by the police.

Steve Cobley, his barrister, said his client receives benefits and is £20,000 in debt. He said: “The defendant has enduring and significant mental health difficulties and the (new) driving offences are wholly different to the last one.

“He has twin 11-year-old sons who have their own difficulties and if he were to be immediately imprisoned this would have an extremely detrimental effect on them.”

Julia King, prosecuting, said McCormack was handed a 12-month jail term, suspended for two years and was banned from driving at a hearing at Sheffield Crown Court in

January. She said that incident saw his father die when McCormack lost control of a car in Sheffield, in January 2020.

The prosecutor said: “On March 15 this year, shortly after 10pm, a car was spotted [in Heanor] which was considered to be suspicious, driving around the same housing estate and stopping. The driver, this defendant, gave a false name at first but then admitted he was disqualified.”

Miss King said McCormack, of Holgate Crescent, Sheffield, admitted driving while banned, driving without insurance and being in breach of his suspended sentence.

Recorder Penelope StanistreetKeen handed him a new four-month sentence, suspended for 18 months and told him to do 150 hours unpaid work and to pay £150 towards costs.