Police officer jailed over 'joyride' crash

A police officer who killed a woman on a "hair-raising joyride" in a patrol car while running errands like taking a birthday card to his sister was jailed for six and a half years yesterday.

Malcolm Searles, 24, ran over Sandra Simpson, a 61-year-old grandmother, in Bromley, southeast London, in August last year. He was driving a marked patrol car with its blue lights flashing and siren turned on.

In the hour before the crash, prosecutors said he had delivered a card to his sister, visited a supermarket and picked up his father and uncle from a fancy dress party to give them a ride in the patrol car.

He was clocked doing 104 miles (167 kilometres) per hour in a 40-mile-per-hour zone and also drove at high speed through housing estates where children were playing on the pavement.

After hitting Mrs Simpson, Mr Searles, who has now left London's Metropolitan Police, falsely claimed he had been following a stolen car, Southwark Crown Court in London heard.

He had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to one count of causing death by dangerous driving, one count of dangerous driving and two counts of speeding.

Passing sentence, Judge Geoffrey Rivlin said Mr Searles had taken part in "a hair-raising joyride" which led to an "appalling" tragedy.

"You used, or, rather, abused your privileged position of driving a police car with its emergency signals operating for no other reason other than to provide a cover for racing along the streets," he said.

Mr Searles was also banned from driving for six years.

Mike Franklin of the Independent Police Complaints Commission said its investigation found that Mr Searles "undertook a high-speed joyride in a police vehicle on residential streets for nothing more than personal errands".