A funeral director who knocked down and killed a pensioner who stepped out in front of his vehicle had been illegally driving hearses with a forged licence for more than 12 years, a court heard on Tuesday.
Darrin Brooks gave bosses at the Cooperative Society a photocopy of his wife's driving licence with his picture and details superimposed.
He used the fake document for 12 years before he was finally caught out when he ran over and killed 76-year-o
ld Alzheimer's sufferer Isobel Surridge.
When quizzed by police he said that he used the forged driving licence because it had "simply got him the job" at the funeral firm.
Brooks, 43, appeared at Aylesbury Crown Court and, in a unique prosecution, was sentenced to 160 hours of community service for forging a driving licence and other driving offences.
He was believed to be the first person in the UK to be successfully prosecuted for the offence of causing death by driving whilst unlicensed, a law which only came into force on August 18 last year.
Referring to the incident which happened on the ring road in Aylesbury, last September, Nigel Ogborne, prosecuting, said: "We know that Mr Brooks was driving his vehicle, a Vauxhall Vectra estate with an 2008 plate.
"It was a company car. The road was a single carriageway with two lanes travelling in each direction. There was a pedestrian refuge situated in the centre of the road and the road was subject to a 30mph limit.
"It would appear that the vehicle being driven by Mr Brooks was driving towards Buckingham Road along Elmhurst Road at a point adjacent to the refuge.
"The off-side of the car was then in collision with the pedestrian who travelled up onto the bonnet and her head struck the glass of the windscreen."
Mr Ogborne told the judge at Aylesbury Crown Court that the funeral director - who managed a number of Cooperative branches in Buckinghamshire - was travelling within the speed limit.
He also said that Mrs Surridge, who had Alzheimer's disease, had almost been mown down by another motorist after walking out into the road just minutes before.
Police who attended the crash scene arrested Brooks after he handed over a provisional licence. It later emerged that he had applied for six provisional licences since 1983 but had never actually taken his test.
He has also recently failed his driving theory test.
"Inquiries were made in regards to his previous employers and the DVLA and it turned out that in fact the licence that he had provided to employers had been his wife's," added Mr Ogborne.
"He had photocopied her licence and substituted his details on to it."
Brooks, of Western Avenue, Buckingham, resigned from his post the day after the fatal crash on September 9, last year.
His defence barrister told Judge Norman Bathurst that Brooks was scared he would lose the job "which he loved and enjoyed" if his bosses found out he could not legally drive.
Brooks had earlier admitted one count of causing death by driving an unlicensed vehicle, one count of gaining pecuniary advantage by deception, one count of fraud by false representation and one count of making a false instrument.
Passing a sentence of 160 hours unpaid community service, Deputy Circuit Judge Bathurst said: "The most serious of these matters is the fact that you forged a driving licence to retain your employment once you got it.
"On that matter I will sentence you to 160 hours of unpaid work. For the other three you will serve 80 hours of unpaid work concurrently."
He was also told he could not apply for a driving licence for the next 12 months.
Speaking after the hearing Mr Ogborne, from CPS Thames Valley, said: "This is a tragic case on any view.
"Mr Brooks made deliberate attempts to deceive his employers that he held a driving licence in order to keep his job. He did nothing to correct this position in the 12 years he worked for them despite driving regularly during this time.
"Nor did he during that period make any attempt to take his driving test. He now has to live with the tragic consequences of his actions."
