Judge's sentencing remarks in private ambulance driver's dangerous driving case

“Just over two years ago, now, you were involved in a head-on collision with a vehicle driven by Mr Paul Wilson. That was a consequence of your driving, which you accepted in the circumstances was dangerous,” she told Moss on Monday morning.

“You were going to overtake a vehicle which had already overtaken you and there is nothing – I emphasise – to suggest that there was anything improper about the manner of driving in which that original vehicle overtook.

“But believing yourself to be on not a single carriageway, as you were, but on a dual carriageway you overtook at some speed and then collided with Mr Wilson’s car coming in the other direction.

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“You could not have been concentrating properly on the road ahead of you because you would have read what were hazard warning signs and you were going too fast in a heavy vehicle.

“I want to draw the focus back on to Paul Wilson, who suffered serious injuries as a consequence of that collision – himself utterly blameless for what has happened and it has had implications for all areas of his life, as you’ve heard at great length.”

Danny Moss outside Oxford Crown Court Picture: OM

She said it would probably be of ‘little consolation’ if she was to say publicly ‘what a very remarkable person he must be’.

“He is someone to he admired for his fortitude and the stoicism he has displayed. I extend that admiration to those who have supported him, most closely and perhaps particularly his wife who has made her own sacrifices without any mark of bitterness or rancour towards the person who was responsible for what happened.

“I summarise in a very limited way what I have heard about the consequences for him; the very substantial pain and discomfort which he has undergone, the series of surgical procedures, the implications for his work, for his family life and the consequences there have been for those who love him and it is a tribute to his efforts that he has managed to a very great extent the limitations which have been placed upon his abilities particularly in an area of his life which was so important to him - his sporting achievements. He clearly has an indomitable spirit.

“I take into account everything I know about that night and the consequences your driving had upon him.

“This is a difficult case. There are no sentencing guidelines to assist the court. I must do the best I can.

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“The closest analogy I can see are those [sentencing guidelines] that deal with appropriate sentences for causing death by dangerous driving but of course one must bear in mind fortunately [your driving] did not have that consequence.

“One would have to put these in the second category; driving which caused a substantial risk of danger.”

Oxford Crown Court Picture: ED NIX

The case was aggravated by a previous conviction for drink driving from 2004. But that was balanced by the mitigating features, including his good driving record since working for ambulance provider ION.

Following the crash he had put himself through an advanced driving course. His remorse was affected by his experience of a crash in summer 2020, where he was left with serious injuries by another dangerous driver, she said.

The charge of causing serious injury by dangerous driving carried a maximum sentence

The judge took a starting point of 27 months’ imprisonment. She awarded him ‘full credit’ as he had pleaded guilty after psychiatrists ruled he was fit to plead, meaning a reduction in his sentence of a third, reducing the sentence to 18 months’ imprisonment.

“The question then is whether or not this needs to be a sentence which is served immediately,” she said.

“No doubt [those] who have been a victim of this sort of offence would be disappointed to hear the course that I am going to take, which is that this is going to be a sentence which I can suspend.

“But in many ways, it should not ever be thought that the sentence is intended here in any way shape or form to reflect the consequences on those who are victims of these sorts of offences or seek to compensate them.

“I need to do my best, bearing in mind the public interest and balancing it against the situation in the individual case to allow a just consequence.”

She added that she needed to look at the principles of imposing suspended sentences, the most significant of which was whether the defendant had strong personal mitigation.

In Moss’s case, what had happened to him since the January crash amounted to strong personal mitigation.

She said: “This doesn’t detract in any way, as your counsel rightly accepts, from the enormity and gravity of what has happened to Mr Wilson but it is not a case in my view in which appropriate punishment can only be achieved by immediate custody.”

Moss must pay £1,000 in compensation. He was banned from driving for three years and must complete an extended retest before he can drive again.

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