Driver who killed beautician in 110mph Range Rover crash in London jailed for over seven years
17 May 2023, 14:37
A driver who killed a beautician when he crashed his Ranger Rover while driving at up to 110mph has been jailed for more than seven years.
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Yagmur Ozden, 33, was killed when she was thrown from the £180,000 car as it smashed into a Tesla dealership and careered onto a railway track in west London.
Rida Kazem, 24, was driving her and Zamarod Arif, who was 26 at the time, home after a night out. Ms Arif was left with serious injuries including a broken arm and leg.
Kazem was also thrown from the car in the crash and had his left leg amputated below the knee.
Appearing in court in front of his family, and using crutches, he smiled to the public gallery as he was jailed.
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CCTV footage showed the horrific collision early on August 22 2022, and Ms Ozden's family gasped and wept while it was shown at Isleworth Crown Court on Wednesday.
Kazem, of Greenford in west London, hit speeds of up to 110mph on the A40 westbound near Ealing and lost control of his Range Rover Sport SVR.
The car hit a taxi driver's Tesla, which had stopped to recharge, and it ended up on the track at Park Royal tube station.
Nicholas Hearn, prosecuting, said Kezam had previous convictions for speeding, having been caught going at 95mph in a 50mph zone and he was banned from driving for six months in November 2020.
Judge Martin Edmunds KC said Kazem had not shown any real remorse and had even suggested previously that he had not been driving.
Kazem, who worked in his family's jewellery business and was due to start a university law course, will have to serve at least two-thirds of the seven-and-a-half years sentence, and will be banned from driving for more than 12 years.
"The speed and violence of this unfolding crash is simply horrific, and the Range Rover was reduced to a mangled heap of metal," the judge said.
"I have no doubt 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 too clear is your skills were all too inadequate."
Kazem did plead guilty to causing death by dangerous driving and causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
His defence lawyer David Rhodes said that showed he accepted he was the driver.
"He knows he has taken a life in Yagmur Ozden and left a young girl without a mother and he knows he very nearly killed himself in that accident," he said.
Melek Ozden, 13, the daughter of Baghdad-born Ms Ozden, made a statement to the court that was read out by Mr Hearn.
"I'm still on shock. Sometimes I feel alone even though I have someone else with me," she said.
"It will never be the same. I miss my mum and it's very sad I can't change what happened.
"I miss her and that I can no longer hang out with her. She was my best friend and I will miss the simple things like cooking pasta with her."
She said she remembers the crash "every time I see a Range Rover".
"I know my mum always wanted one and she ended up passing away in one," the girl added.
"I have a constant daydream of my mum passing away. It happens every day and sometimes more than once a day.
"I blame the driver for taking my mum away. I believe he's acting like it never happened."
Ms Ozden's sister-in-law Kirsty Kelly said: "Yagmur had so many plans but sadly her plans got cut short. As a family we feel sick. It is unbelievably heart-breaking what we have been going through."
Ms Arif said he was "permanently scarred both physically and mentally" and her life has "completely changed".
