A taxi driver whose dangerous driving caused a pedestrian's death just sixteen minutes after he had been warned about his speed by the police was jailed for six years and ten months yesterday (May 2).

Dad of four Shakoor Ahmed, 46, was also banned from driving for five years five months by a judge who told him he had behaved with 'gross arrogance' on the roads on the night he crashed into 32 year old landscape gardener Dan Beames in Cheltenham.

Ahmed, carrying two passengers in his electric Toyota Prius cab, was doing 53mph on a 40mph road when he hit Mr Beames, who was crossing the road with a newly purchased box of beer under his arm after attending a Christmas party.

Sixteen minutes earlier, Ahmed had been carrying a passenger in Denmark Road, Gloucester, when he was pulled in by two police officers who gave him a formal warning for speeding. The officers had charitably decided not to charge him with the offence because of the impact a conviction might have on his sixteen year taxi driving career.

But Gloucester Crown Court heard that Ahmed did not heed the warning - in fact, he boasted about it to his next two passengers when he picked them up at Gloucester Bus station and drove them to Cheltenham.

He also told them that he had driven at 100mph along the A40 Golden Valley by-pass between Gloucester and Cheltenham in the past - and he then proceeded to do so again on their journey.

Driving along Lansdown Road in Cheltenham, Ahmed pulled out at traffic lights to overtake a slow moving car ahead of him and then cut back in front of the vehicle to get back into the correct lane.

But as he did so, at a speed of 53mph with his foot flat down on the accelerator, Mr Beames started to cross the road from a Texaco garage on the right hand side and Ahmed could not avoid hitting him.

Mr Beames was rushed to hospital in Bristol but did not survive his catastrophic brain injuries.

His mother, Yvette White and his partner Jessica Beames, a paramedic who has since changed her surname to his, both read emotional statements to the judge describing the devastation his loss had caused to them and the rest of his family.

Mrs White, a financial administrator, said Dan - the youngest of her three children - was a thoughtful, caring, optimistic and popular person who was artistic and creative.

His death was the second tragedy to hit her because she had lost a daughter in 2020 - and she herself had then been diagnosed with cancer, she said.

"In December 2021 I was really looking forward to Christmas with Daniel and his girlfriend - my radiotherapy was due to start taking place in January," she stated.

"But then the police came to my door at 3am (on Dec 18th 2021) and I was rushed to hospital. We waited three hours and then the neurosurgeon came and told us there was basically no hope for him. I held his hand and felt his pulse until his last heartbeat. My son was gone.

"On Christmas Day he was not there, yet the presents he had carefully chosen and wrapped were. He never got to see us open them or hear our thanks for them."

She said he has been on anxiety medications since the tragedy, she does not sleep properly any more, and she keeps thinking of her last image of him in hospital with his life ebbing away.

"I could accept his death if it was a total accident but my son's life was taken away by a taxi driver's dangerous driving and that I can't accept," she added. "He only had one job to do and he failed.

"This man not only took my son's life, he destroyed mine as well."

She said she is no longer able to face driving along Lansdown Road, Cheltenham, where the collision happened, and she has to plan detours to avoid it.

Dan's partner, Jessica, a paramedic, told the court she was on duty and at Great Western Hospital in Swindon - ironically, with a head injury casualty - when she heard the news of the collision from her control.

She went straight to Bristol, still in uniform, to be with Dan, she said.

"I kissed him and told him I was there and I loved him and I would stay until the end, whatever the outcome might be. I signed the consent form for neurological surgery but post surgery I was told he had 'almost a zero percent chance of recovery' - words that I will remember for the rest of my life. It was earth shattering."

She said she has no longer been able to work as a frontline paramedic as a result of the trauma of Dan's death. After the tragedy she could not eat and her weight fell from 55kilos to 45 kilos, she said.

She also related how she had to face the heartbreaking task of telling her six year old son that his beloved stepfather had died. After she had explained he asked to go to his bedroom and she could then hear him 'breaking down,' she said.

Later, she said, her son asked why Dan was crossing the road and why the driver didn't see him - questions she was not able to answer because at that stage the details of the collision had not been withheld from the family.

Ms Beames said she realised that 'a never ending road of grief lay ahead of me,' as she struggled come to terms with the loss of Dan.

Ahmed, of Conduit St, Gloucester, pleaded guilty to causing the death of Mr Beames by dangerous driving on 17th Dec 2021.

His barrister, Catherine Spedding, said "He is genuinely remorseful about what happened and the premature death of Mr Beames that he caused and which has had such an effect on Mr Beames' family.

"He clearly appreciates the effects because he has four children himself. He lives with his parents and cares for them. It is a family responsibility he has willingly taken on."

She asked the court to take into account that Mr Beames had a blood/alcohol reading of 193mgs at the time of his death - almost two and a half times the limit for a driver. He had also tested positive for cannabis, she said.

"That would undoubtedly have had an effect, causing reduced co-ordination and a reduction in reaction time. He was also using his mobile phone as he crossed the road.

"My client has not driven since the collision. He has given up his profession as a taxi driver, which was a long standing one."

Jailing Ahmed, Judge Rupert Lowe said he had read character references which showed that he was a caring, honest, reliable, trustworthy, helpful and a hard-working man who looked after his elderly parents and two uncles and had, despite some criminal convictions more than 23 years ago, led a law-abiding adulthood.

The only exception, he said, had been a speeding conviction nine months before the tragedy, in March 2021, when he did 45mph in a 30mph limit and was fined and issued with three penalty points.

"At 10.15pm on December 17, 2021 you were driving with a fare paying passenger in Denmark Road, Gloucester, at such a speed as to attract the attention of a police officer. This was in the aftermath of a Gloucester Rugby match and it was a hazard rich environment.

"PC Dougall thought you were driving dangerously fast and you had to swerve to narrowly miss a parked car. You said you were in a hurry and you said 'I know, I cannot defend my speed.'

"You also made a flippant remark that recent damage to your vehicle was caused by you driving too slowly and that was stupidity. You did not take the issue of speed seriously even when you had paying passengers on board.

"PC Dougall and his colleague excercised their discretion in your favour by issuing a notice, a serious warning, about your speed.

"PC Dougall was not in possession of a crystal ball. He was no more able than any other human being to foresee events. His decision to issue a warning notice under Section 59 of the Police Reform Act 2002 was appropriate in the light of the facts.

"It was humane and responsible decision making. I make no criticism of him and his colleague. "

The judge said that despite the warning, Ahmed drove to Gloucester bus station and picked up two rugby spectators who wanted to go to Cheltenham .

"You told them about the Section 59 speed warning, which they found surprising in view of your profession as a taxi driver, " said the judge.

"You spoke about the power of your electric car and you said you liked being behind other vehicles because they stopped you speeding.

"On the Golden Valley by-pass you reached 100mph. On the Lansdown Road in Cheltenham you accelerated again and your front seat passenger, Mr Walker, felt unsafe.

"As you approached the traffic lights just prior to the Texaco garage you pulled into the right hand lane for Stroud to pass a car which was pulling off from the lights. Mr Walker says this was an unnecessary manoeuvre and I agree.

"A competent driver would have remained in the left lane and allowed the car in front to move away. You proceeded to overtake and then cut him up by suddenly pulling into the left hand lane.

"Mr Walker saw a pedestrian, the victim Mr Beames, who had stepped out to cross the road from the garage where he had just bought a box of beer. He had been to a Christmas party at a local pub and was heading to a friend's house to continue the evening.

"As he was crossing the road he was talking on his mobile phone. He had been drinking enough to render him tipsy and he had been using cannabis.

"His judgement might have been impaired and he may have been distracted by speaking on his phone but there is insufficient evidence to make any judgement on that.

"It is clear though that he was not blind drunk, he was not slurring his words or stumbling around and he was entitled to go about his business in Cheltenham in the way he was - apart from using a controlled drug."

The judge pointed out that if Ahmed had been driving at the 40mph limit there was only a 30% chance of Mr Beames being killed. But at his speed of 53mph the chance of fatality was 80%.

"This was the most awful waste of a young life," he said.

"Mr Beames was a 32-year-old landscape gardener with a devoted partner and stepson, loving friends, parents and family. They have paid a fitting testament to a young man whose life was so tragically lost."

The judge said the aggravating factors were Ahmed's speed with two passengers on board, his ignoring of the earlier police warning and the fact that the victim was a pedestrian. He had shown 'gross arrogance' in those respects.

But in Ahmed's favour were that Mr Beames had contributed significantly to the collision by his own inattention, Ahmed's largely good character, the effect of his imprisonment on his children, the strong prospect of him being rehabilitated, the low risk of him re-offending and his co-operation with the police investigation.

The judge said he also took into account Ahmed's genuine remorse. Overall, he said, the mitigating factors in Ahmed's favour marginally outweighed the aggravating features.

The judge reduced the starting point sentence of eight years to seven years and eight months to reflect the mitigation and then allowed a 10% reduction in recognition of Ahmed's guilty plea.

He said the sentence would therefore be a jail term of six years and 10 months, of which he would serve half before being paroled.

Ahmed would have to take an extended driving test before being allowed on the road again after his five years and five month disqualification, the judge added.