Local resident Dilys Fouracres killed at the bus stop

A man in his forties has been jailed and given a five-year driving ban following an accident in Chiswick Lane nearly two years ago in which an elderly woman was killed while waiting at a bus stop.

Mohammed Wadi, originally from Iraq, with an address in Chiswick, was sentenced at Isleworth Crown Court last Friday (27 Sept) to sixteen months imprisonment for causing death by careless driving and fourteen months for perverting the course of justice, to run consecutively.

Pic of Mr. Wadi courtesy of MPS

He is to serve a minimum of fifteen months before being released on licence. He was also disqualified from driving for five years with an extended re-test.

On Friday, November 25th, 2011 at around 9 am Mrs Dilys Fouracres (89) was waiting at the bus stop in Chiswick Lane in front of the Chiswick Recreation grounds, waiting for the 190 bus to Richmond.

The five-day court hearing was told that a VWTouran was driving south on Chiswick Lane. The driver swerved to avoid a silver car pulling out in front of him from a street on the right. The Touran mounted the pavement and continued along into the bus stop where it crashed into both railings behind the shelter and the bus stop itself where Mrs. Fouracres was waiting.

The scene after the accident

The driver of the silver vehicle, Mr. Wadi, left the scene at speed failing to stop. One eye witness reported seeing a silver vehicle soon afterwards making an illegal right turn into Eastbury Grove. Though no witnesses could provide a registration number or a description of the driver at the time, officers from the Road Death Investigation Unit at Hampton later identified the vehicle failing to stop as a silver Vauzhall Astra BV53YZT and the driver being Mohammad Wadi, the registered keeper. At the time an alert was issued for a female suspect but this information came from the driver of the Touran who had, in a split second, seen what he thought was the back of a head with long hair, which he thought was a female driver.

The court also heard that prior to his arrest, in order to avoid detection, Mr. Wadi, who described himself as a student, had posted to the DVLA on November 30th, the log book for his vehicle, claiming that he had sold it two days before the collision had taken place to a fictitious male known as Marcel Karami.

He then travelled to Iraq. On the 22nd of January 2012, he was arrested when he arrived back to the UK and interviewed. He maintained that he had sold the vehicle to the fictitious Mr. Karami and was bailed and re-interviewed on two further occasions. He continued to maintain that he was not responsible for the collision. Following what police described as a "protracted enquiry" he was charged on January 7th 2013.

On September 6th 2013, following a five-day trial, Mr. Wadi was found guilty of both causing death by careless driving and perverting the course of justice. During the trial he gave evidence maintaining his innocence.

He was asked by prosecution counsel to take the opportunity to apologise to the family of Mrs. Fouracres but declined, claiming no responsibility. Sentencing was adjourned to September 27th 2013 in order to allow probation services time to prepare a report.

During his meeting with probation services Mr. Wadi admitted his responsibility in being the driver to pull out from the side road in front of the driver of the Touran and falsifying the registration document to DVLA. He claimed that due to his previous experiences in Iraq he was suspicious of the authorities in the UK.

The judge at Isleworth Crown Court commended the daughter of Mrs. Fouracres for her dignity throughout the trial.

October 3, 2013