Jail for dangerous driver who killed Peak District mum-of-two

Other drivers who witnessed Philip Jupp’s overtaking shortly before the collision which killed Wendy Slater, 45, described it as “crazy”, “suicidal” and “a total gamble”.

Jailing Jupp, 56, for two years and eight months, Judge Jonathan Gosling said Mrs Slater, of Rakes Road, Monyash, had died because of his “aggressive and thoughtless actions”.

The judge said Jupp’s behaviour had been “shockingly selfish and thoroughly dangerous”.

Mrs Slater was a former landlady of the Coach and Horses pub in Ashbourne.

Mrs Slater’s husband, Andrew, in a victim impact statement read to the court, said her death had devastated his and his children’s lives.

He said: “She was the best friend I’ve ever had and no-one will ever replace that.

“I feel so lonely and isolated.”

“I’m an emotional mess and it takes all I have to get out of bed each morning but have to because of my children.

“I feel dead inside. It has destroyed us all.”

But in conclusion, Mr Slater said: “I feel no malice towards the man who did this to us.

“But I do hope he knows what he has done to us and that he has destroyed our lives.”

Derby Crown Court heard that the crash between Jupp’s car and Mrs Slater’s Vauxhall Corsa happened at about 6.45am on the A515 at Flagg, near Monyash, on April 24 last year.

Prosecutor Stephen Kemp said there had been “thick fog” but despite this Jupp, who was travelling south to work in Loughborough, was overtaking.

Mr Kemp said: “He carried out a series of overtaking manoeuvres, until he finally overtook a Renault and a tanker, when the distance to do this would have exceeded the distance of visibility.”

Jupp, of Buxton Road, Whaley Bridge, admitted causing death by dangerous driving.

He was banned from driving for five years.

His lawyer David Dixon said: “The defendant does not wish me to say that what happened was anything other than his fault.”