SHOCKING RISE IN CONVICTIONS 14,000 drivers caught high on drugs...

And they’ve destroyed families like mine

THE heartbroken mum of a road crash victim is demanding stiffer sentences to halt the alarming rise in drug-driving.

Natasha Groves’s world fell apart when a speeding driver who had smoked dope killed 14-year-old daughter Lillian.

Natasha and her family successfully fought to change the law on drug driving.

But she was furious after the Sunday People revealed that of the 13,757 drivers caught high on drugs last year just 600 were sent to jail.

Five years ago, before the law changed, just 855 in England and Wales were done for drug-driving.

Natasha, 49, said: “The lives of decent people and their families are being destroyed by the selfishness of people who drug-drive.

“We thought the law change would stop people from doing it and prevent other families suffering as we have.

“But if nearly 14,000 people are convicted and only 600 are sent to jail, where is the deterrent? It is a joke.

“The sentences people are getting is just making a mockery out of it. They are getting a slap on the wrist, maybe a small fine – but that’s it. It’s so disheartening.”

Kick

Figures the Sunday People obtained under Freedom of Information rules also showed last year the longest any motorist was banned for was 18 months and the biggest fine £8,830.

We also asked police forces about the youngest and oldest suspected drug-drivers they had collared in the past five years.

Suffolk nicked a boy, aged 13, last year and London’s Met Police caught a lad of the same age in 2013-14.

A 14-year-old girl was arrested by Dyfed-powys Police in Wales in 2016-17 and a 14-year-old boy was held in Kent last year. The oldest suspect was an man, aged 84, arrested in West Yorkshire.

Lillian should be 22 now but in June 2010, the day before her mum’s birthday, she was knocked down crossing the road outside her home in New Addington, Surrey. She died in hospital the next day.

Driver John Page was not tested for drugs until nine hours after the incident.

There was not enough cannabis in his system to charge him with causing death by careless driving while under the influence of drugs, which carried a maximum 14-year sentence.

He admitted causing death by careless driving and was jailed for just eight months.

Lillian’s aunt Michaela Groves said: “We walked out