Tom Richmond: A tragedy compounded by EU failings on justice

I’ll also never get the chance – this is the innocent individual who was killed two days before his 20th birthday in March this year when his Renault Clio car was crushed by a HGV lorry steered by an inebriated and incoherent Bulgarian driver still three times over the legal drink-drive limit after he had recklessly drunk a bottle of spirits the previous day.

Yet, even though Stoyan Andonov Stoyanov was banned from driving in Britain for 10 years when jailed for seven years and eight months for killing Callum by dangerous driving, a legal loophole means that he will be free to resume driving across Europe from the very moment he is freed from prison and deported back to his homeland.

This is likely to come at the very end of the politically pivotal year of 2017 when 56-year-old Stoyanov reaches the halfway point of his sentence.

To me, this continuing absence of reciprocal justice means any attempt by David Cameron to renegotiate Britain’s relationship with the European Union ahead of a promised referendum in 2017 will be totally redundant unless he can secure justice for Callum’s heartbroken parents Joanne and Robert.

I don’t know the Prime Minister’s priorities. I’m not even sure that the Tory leader does as he continues to be pulled back and forth by his fractious party on issues like the freedom of movement of EU migrants. Nevertheless, this should not excuse Mr Cameron from reminding his Brussels masters that the flag of the European Union is depicted on the top left-hand corner of UK driving licences – including Callum Wark’s – and that it will be a dereliction of duty if Stoyanov resumes driving anywhere in Europe before March 2024 (the year his young victim should have been expecting to celebrate his 30th birthday).

If the EU won’t show any compassion or humanity on this simple issue, the case for Britain staying in the European Union will be even more difficult to state.

Callum, from Swillington, near Leeds, had been working tirelessly since living Brigshaw High School near Allerton Bywater to pay for his car – his “pride and joy” – while also securing the maths qualification that would enable him to pursue an apprenticeship. It was not his fault that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time when his Clio was struck by the lorry on the A162 between Ledsham and Fairburn. His family will not be the first, and sadly not the last, to be tormented by the apparent leniency shown by the courts.

Even though the maximum penalty for causing death by dangerous driving when under the influence of alcohol or drugs was increased to 14 years to 2014, judges still have to take account of mitigating factors like early guilty pleas (as happened in this instance).

Yet the legal betrayal of the Wark family is even greater because there is no mutual recognition of driving disqualifications between EU member states; the one exception being the longstanding arrangements between the UK and Ireland.

Despite their son’s killer being banned from driving in this country for 10 years, such penalties do not apply to the whole European Union. A way must now be found to uphold the will of the courts.

As a perplexed Elmet and Rothwell MP Alec Shelbrooke told a sorrowful House of Commons: “With 1.8 million Britons living and working in Europe, he (Mr Stoyanov) will remain a threat to British citizens abroad – despite a 10-year driving ban in the UK. In court, it was evident that Mr Stoyanov knew little English, either to speak or understand. He claimed to know nothing about the Highway Code or about UK drink-driving laws.

“It says much about the kind of company that Mr Stoyanov worked for that the only interest it showed as regards the death of my constitutent was in its repeat inquiries about securing the return of its expensive heavy goods vehicle.”

His argument could not be more compelling – or eloquent. Yet I’m disappointed to have to report that Justice Minister Andrew Selous’s response was complacently inadequate. He said sentencing was a matter for the courts and dodged the issue of the mutual recognition of driving bans across the EU – he simply said this is “desirable”.

Desirable? Try telling that to Mr and Mrs Wark who still grieve for their only child, described in Parliament as “a child of compassion and profound generosity”.

Is the control-freak Jean-Claude Juncker, the new president of the European Commission, happy for reckless killer drivers like Stoyanov to resume driving on his watch? I hope not.

I also hope that Mr Juncker will acknowledge that Callum Wark’s parents are serving a life sentence made even more painful by this legal ambiguity.

Their one comfort is an inspiring image of their five-year-old son leading a race on his school sports day by the proverbial country mile when he spotted his friend – who had learning difficulties – standing rigid on the start line.

Callum turned around and helped his friend to the finish. As Mr Shelbrooke said: “He lost that race, but he won many more after that.”

Now there’s an even more important race to be won – justice for the Wark family. Over to you, David Cameron.

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