Family of pensioner killed by speeding sheikh sue

A QATARI sheikh who ran over and killed a pensioner while speeding in his Rolls-Royce is being sued by the man’s family for £200,000.

Sheikh Hassan Nasser Al-Thani hit Charles Roberts, 66, while driving at more than 52mph in a 30 zone in central London.

Mr Roberts, a retired railway signalling manager, died at the scene, on a busy roundabout between Hyde Park and Green Park, in August 2019.

The sheikh was given an eight-month jail sentence, suspended for two years, and banned from driving for three years, after pleading guilty to causing death

‘52mph in a 30 zone’

by dangerous driving at the Old Bailey.

Al-Thani’s speed briefly reached 52 to 54mph, the court had heard. The judge said he was ‘satisfied’ that had Al-Thani been driving ‘in or around’ the speed limit, Mr Roberts’s death would have been avoided.

But Al-Thani was spared jail because of his ‘serious’ health issues, such as morbid obesity and sleep apnoea, which would have put him at risk from Covid in prison.

Now the administrator of Mr Roberts’s estate is suing the Qatari businessman on behalf of the victim’s brother, Peter Roberts, demanding more than £200,000.

Lawyers say Mr Roberts, from Harpenden, Hertfordshire, had looked after his vulnerable brother and therefore Peter should be compensated.

The defence of the sheikh was not available from the court.