Monday, November 14, 2011

Callum Oakford

 
A failed asylum seeker and illegal driver was jailed for eight months yesterday for a New Year's Day hit-and-run accident in which he knocked down and killed a nine-year-old boy.
Kamel Kadri, 38, an Algerian, received a second jail term of twice that length for possessing the false French passport which enabled him to enter Britain and work illegally.

The difference in the sentences enraged relatives of Callum Oakford, his victim, who attended Chichester Crown Court to see Kadri sentenced.
Judge Anthony Thorpe jailed Kadri for four months for failing to stop after an accident and four months for failing to report an accident. The maximum sentence for each offence is six months.

He admitted driving without insurance, a licence or an MoT certificate and was barred from driving from two years.

The judge imposed a consecutive 16-month sentence for the passport offence and said Kadri should be deported from Britain upon his release from prison.

"It is intolerable that those who should have been removed from the country when their applications for asylum are refused manage to stay in this country for long periods of time," said the judge.

"They are no doubt often driving unsafe, unlicensed and uninsured cars and clearly have little respect for the laws of this country." Kathryn Proudfoot, the dead boy's sister, said she was "furious" with the sentences - of which Kadri will serve half. "We cannot believe what we have just heard in court, there is no justice," said Mrs Proudfoot, 22.

"We are furious he has got just four months for each of the driving offences. The judge has banned him from driving and taken away his licence - but he hasn't even got a licence and should never have one."

Callum, from Durrington, West Sussex, was crossing the A259 near Worthing with his brother and another boy - on their way to build a den on a patch of scrubland - when he was hit by Kadri's 15-year-old Renault 5.

Kadri was overtaking another car at slightly more than the 50mph speed limit on the dual carriageway when he hit the boy, killing him immediately.

The Algerian sped away from the scene, abandoned his car some distance from his flat in Goring and threw the keys in a bin.

He was traced when members of the public came forward with information after police made appeals through the media.

When they arrested Kadri, details of his life of deception in Britain began to emerge. He left his home in Algeria in 2000 and travelled through Morocco and France where, for £100, he bought a passport in the name Hecene Guelai which had been stolen in 1999.

Crudely replacing the photograph with one of himself, Kadri crossed the Channel by coach and ferry, arriving at Dover and presenting himself to immigration officials to claim asylum.

He admitted his passport was stolen but claimed he was fleeing persecution by a terrorist group in Algeria. The Home Office rejected his asylum claim in November 2001 but Kadri lodged an appeal which failed in 2002.

Unable to win permission to remain in Britain legally, he vanished and became part of the black economy.

Using the false passport, which he still possessed, Kadri was able to gain a National Insurance number, entitlement to some benefits and work. He took jobs at a pub, as an agricultural labourer and as a night cleaner at Worthing hospital.

In summer 2003 he bought the car privately and on the DVLA registration document wrote his name as Benchick Dodo. He did not insure the vehicle and when the MoT certificate lapsed did not seek to renew it.

Judge Thorpe told Kadri: "Had you left the UK when you should have done in September 2002 and not stayed on as an illegal immigrant, you would not have been driving that untaxed, uninsured car that had no current MoT on January 1 and so that young child would still be alive."

Murderer:

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