Drunk driver killed own friend in horrific smash

TWO children were left orphaned after a speeding driver crashed his car on a road in Birmingham, killing his friend in the passenger seat, a court heard.

Moin Chaudhary was over the alcohol limit and was driving a vehicle with four over inflated tyres.

He had been driving a Toyota Yaris on December 1, 2021 on Warwick Road, Acocks Green, when tragedy struck just after midnight.

His passenger was Ahtisham Akram, a 38-year-old father-of-two, whose wife had died just under a year earlier.

Chaudhary, 39, of Lyndon Road, Solihull, admitted causing death by careless driving while over the prescribed limit. He was jailed for three years and banned from the roads for four and a half years.

Paul Spratt, prosecuting at Birmingham Crown Court, said that it was damp and that the road was subject to a 20mph speed limit. He said: “He was travelling in excess of the 20mph limit by some margin.”

Mr Spratt said it was later calculated that 100 metres before the collision Chaudhary was driving at 53mph. As he was negotiating a turn in the road he hit a kerb.

He told the court: “This has caused him to lose control and he has spun in the road, colliding with a boundary wall and the gate posts of a church on the opposite side.”

Mr Spratt said the victim suffered unsurvivable injuries and was pronounced dead just after 3am.

Chaudhary was later breathalysed and found to be one and a half times over the alcohol limit, while an examination of the Yaris revealed all four tyres were over inflated. He and Mr Akram had gone out to meet someone who had not turned up and their journey had been unnecessary.

Judge Sarah Buckingham said: “He was the father of two young children, aged 13 and 11. Tragedy had already befallen his family because his wife had died 11 months earlier following a long standing heart condition.

“That family had been broken by her death. The impact of his on his children cannot be underestimated. They have suffered severe psychological and emotional trauma.

“Losing both parents in the space of 11 months has devastated them.” She said that Chaudhary had been driving at a “ridiculous” speed, nearly three times over the speed limit.

James Doyle, defending, said: “The tragedy is made more poignant by the fact that Chaudhary’s family did provide care to the children of the deceased after the events because the family were so close.”

He said that Mr Akram had previously moved from London to Birmingham so he could be closer to his extended family and to Chaudhary.

Chaudhary, he said, had recently obtained a business degree with the intention of working in banking and that after hitting the kerb he had “over reacted” with his steering wheel in a bid to right the situation.

He added that the defendant had suffered severe injuries himself and that the main artery to his heart had been punctured.