110mph boy racer who killed passenger ‘showing off ’ in his Range Rover jailed for 7 years
A ‘BOY RACER’ who killed a mother in a horror crash when his Range Rover ended up on rail tracks was jailed for sevenand-half-years yesterday.
Rida Kazem, who was ‘showing off’ to his two passengers, was travelling at 110mph on the westbound A40 in Ealing, west London, before he hit a kerb and the car came off the road.
Beautician Yagmur Ozden, 33, died instantly after being thrown from his £180,000 Range Rover SVR.
His front-seat passenger Zamarod Arif survived but suffered a broken arm and leg in the crash.
After the vehicle left the road it careered into a Tesla garage where it smashed into stationary car with the driver sat inside – who said he is in pain every day as a result of the crash.
The Range Rover then landed upside down on the tracks, which are situated
‘I want him to go to prison for a long time’
above ground, at the adjacent Park Royal underground station.
Jailing the 24-year-old – of Greenford, west London – at Isleworth Crown Court Judge Martin Edmunds told Kazem that he was responsible for an ‘unnecessary tragedy’.
Judge Edmunds said: ‘I have no doubt that you were showing off to your passengers, both showing off your powerful car but also what you thought of as your superior driving skills. What is all to clear is that your skills were wholly inadequate.’ The judge told Kazem he had shown no real remorse and had even attempted to shift blame on to his victims by suggesting one of the two women had been driving.
The court heard that Kazem had been guilty of persistent and deliberate bad driving.
Judge Edmunds added: ‘ The speed and violence of this simply horrific crash reduced the car to a mangled heap of metal. The suggestion that you made that because of your previous driving disqualifications you would not knowingly have exceeded the speed limit is clear nonsense.’
Kazem was also thrown from the car before it landed on the tracks. He was in a co ma for almost a month and had his left leg amputated. The court heard that Ms Arif had been the only person in the vehicle wearing a seatbelt.
During the sentencing hearing a three-minute compilation of CCTV footage showing the car speeding on the A40 was shown the court.
Ms Ozden’s family wept as the footage showed the moment the car slammed into the garage.
The victim’s daughter Melek, 13, said she was in pain every day and wanted justice for her mother.
She said: ‘I am still in shock. I miss mum, she was my best friend and I miss the simple things like cooking pasta and going to the park. We had a favourite song by Dua Lipa called Electricity that I can never listen to now. It is sad that I cannot say goodbye.’
She added: ‘Even if he gets a life sentence it doesn’t change anything. I want him to go to prison for a long time so that this cannot happen to anyone else.’
Ms Ozden’s sister Maya Kodsi, 37, raged at the justice system and said the jail term was not enough.
She said: ‘This is so painful for us. What is wrong with British justice? He has killed my sister and will be out in a few years.’
Iraqi-born Kazem had pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving and causing serious injury by dangerous driving at a previous hearing.
He has been in custody since January amid fears from police that his family were attempting to help him flee the country on a private jet.