Overview
- Augustine Kiprono, 28, received a three-year prison sentence at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court after pleading guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving, driving without a licence, and driving uninsured.
- Prosecutors said he attempted to overtake a lorry on the approach to a bend on the A53 and collided head-on with Stuart and Valerie Heath’s motorcycle while nearly one-and-a-half times the drink-drive limit.
- All occupants of the Vauxhall Vectra left the scene on foot, and Kiprono was later found collapsed in a nearby field before being treated in hospital and discharged on June 9.
- Judge Richard McConaghy cited fleeing the scene and further offending on bail as aggravating factors, noting that Kiprono later took another vehicle and drove it drunk, unlicensed, and uninsured.
- The Heaths suffered severe leg injuries and lengthy hospital stays, with Mr. Heath forced to sell his 120-cow dairy herd and Mrs. Heath unable to continue her dog-walking work.