Two Indian-origin men have been jailed for a total of 28 years after their high-speed driving led to the deaths of a 27-year-old mother and her four-year-old daughter in Leeds, northern England, in January 2023. Hardeep Bhachu, 29, was sentenced to 12 years in prison, while Jasskamal Riyat, 37, received a 16-year term at Leeds Crown court on Monday.Bhachu pleaded guilty to causing the deaths of Justyna Hulboj and her daughter, Lena Czepczor, by dangerous driving. Riyat was convicted of the same offences after a trial in August. Both men were also handed six-year driving bans and will have to take an extended driving test before they can drive again.“A road is not a race track. A powerful car is not an invitation to test its limits on a public road,” Judge Ray Singh said while sentencing the men. “The consequences of competitive driving at extreme speed can be, and in this case were, irreversible,” he added.The collision took place on January 16, 2023, when Bhachu lost control of his Audi and struck Justyna and Lena as they walked to school in Leeds. The car then crashed into the wall of the Vertu Jaguar Leeds dealership on Scott Hall Road. Both mother and daughter died at the scene.According to the BBC, prosecutors told Riyat’s trial that he had been driving at 89mph on a road with a 40mph speed limit shortly before the collision. He was driving a BMW 1 Series and was allegedly racing Bhachu’s Audi TT RS.The BBC reported that Riyat was also holding his phone and recording Bhachu as he accelerated away from traffic lights, saying: “Watch this guy let it off.” The two men did not know each other but had earlier lowered their windows to speak at traffic lights.Riyat denied racing Bhachu. According to the BBC, he initially told police he had been “doing a steady 40” and later suggested he might have exceeded the speed limit because he was travelling to a work meeting. After watching footage in court, he revised his estimate to 50mph.The BBC also reported that Riyat was forced to stop because of the wreckage after the collision. He took photographs before driving around the scene and continuing to work. The jury took less than two hours to convict him on two counts of causing death by dangerous driving.West Yorkshire Police identified Riyat as the driver of a black BMW 135i using dashcam and CCTV footage supplied by members of the public. Bhachu’s own dashcam captured a conversation between the two men at traffic lights, during which Bhachu boasted that his Audi had 560 horsepower and that he had only been using quarter throttle.“Bhachu and Riyat didn’t know each other. They were two men showing off their fast cars on a busy dual carriageway,” Detective Inspector Paul Conroy, of West Yorkshire Police’s Major Collision Enquiry Team, said.“Ultimately, Bhachu thought he could drive at those speeds in his high-powered car, but he couldn’t, and his loss of control took two lives and ruined many more.“Riyat witnessed this collision but instead of stopping to check if those involved were okay, he left the scene. He denied his involvement but was convicted thanks to the extensive footage showing his speeding vehicle in the moments leading up to the collision,” he added.“A woman and her young daughter have died because of the actions of these men, and I know no sentence will ever feel enough to compensate for the lives that have been lost,” Conroy said.“This sentencing hearing though does mark the end of a long criminal justice process for Justyna and Lena’s family.“It is over two years since Bhachu admitted his part in this tragic incident and I know that the wait for justice has taken its toll. My thoughts are firmly with them today,” he said.In a statement, Justyna’s fiancé and Lena’s father said his “whole world collapsed in one second” after the crash.“Every day I feel a huge void after their departure, and I imagine what it would be like if they were still alive. We had so many plans and dreams and in one moment it all ended… This nightmare will last for the rest of my life,” he said.
