Rich Man's Law

The Law in the so called 'Free World' has always been skewed toward the rich and the celebrity - the main reason is that if you can pay a smart lawyer, you will get away with anything and if you are peer, you are assumed to be above the Law. As we hold up our system as a shining example to the 'undemocratised world' who we think do not understand the rule of law, ours is a system that is rotten at its core.

Yesterday, after killing a man with a blunt object known as a car, Lord Ahmed walked free with a suspended 12 month sentence. He killed a Slovakian driver, Mr. Gombar, who unfortunately had had an accident in his Audi and was facing the wrong way on a motorway at night. Lord Ahmed was found to have sent five texts from his mobile phone while driving on a 17 mile stretch of motorway just prior to the accident. At night, in the dark, in the outside lane of a motorway.

If this was anyone else other than a rich, peer of the realm, they would have been locked up for some considerable time and rightly so. The Appeal Court Judge, Lady Justice Hackett, ruled that there was 'little or nothing' he could have done to avoid killing the gentleman and that there was 'exceptional' personal mitigation in this case. Lord Ahmed's lawyer, Jermey Baker QC, had argued that the jail sentence would have 'irreparably and permanently' damaged his client's ability to carry out community work in the future.

Lady Justice Hackett, also pointed out that Lord Ahmed had never been accused or admitted to driving dangerously - such is the semantic of the Law in this case, texting while driving or driving while texting is deemed not dangerous. The appeal was hastily organised and such a foregone conclusion that Lord Ahmed did not even bother attending.

Rough Justice

The family of the Slovakian driver, whose life might have been spared had not a speeding (not enough to break the law, mind you) vehicle driven by a man not concentrating, could argue the same without such equivocation. For that man, there is no second chance, no mitigating circumstances, no nice Judge from the House of Lords, no justice - his crime was to have got in the way of a man who valued the safety of other individuals on the road no more than a fly hitting a windscreen.

For this Slovakian driver got in the way of a man on a mission, in the fast track of life and society in the free world, who could drive without due care and attention, who can kill through his negligence and have the money, power and arrogance to get away with it because he is of 'greater value to society'.

In this case, it is Mr. Gombar who was at fault for trying to interfere with Lord Ahmed's life. Perhaps, like Max Mosley, he has a case for suing Mr. Gombar's family for 'loss of dignity' having been unnecessarily dragged through the courts, to add insult to fatal injury.

For the thousands of motorists who get caught speeding who have had no accidents for years or killed anyone, this will come as some surprise. They are told regularly that they are not only breaking the law but they are potential killers - they are guilty without trial and have to pay the fine and serve the term.

They say that speed is a factor in 29% of road deaths and this will not be one of those statistics as he was driving within the speed limit - I would say it is driving with the arrogance not to care about the safety of others. There is no greater crime while sitting behind the wheel other than being incapable of driving due to a substance or incompetence.

The Wrong Message

Crime in this country is all about statistics and money. This only proves a very sad point. For the vast majority of drivers who may drive on the odd occasion above the supposed legal limit, they are easy targets for the Law as they do not argue - they accept their crime with humility and serve the sentence.

For Lord Ahmed, a peer of the realm and bastion of society, he lives in a different world. By virtue of the fact his car was moving, not even breaking the legal limit, his lack of care and negligence for other road users killed an innocent man whose only crime was to have crashed and stood in his way. We may never know why Lord Ahmed did not see him in time to prevent the crash or take avoiding action to spare his life.

What we do know is that his people got their texts and that he is able to 'serve' the community again as the shining example that he clearly is. His life goes on with impunity.

That's justice in Britain, in 2009, and it stinks.