Police and road safety campaigners have slammed a 'lenient' sentence handed down to three streetracers clocked travelling 134mph on a dual carriageway. Amar Paul, Tejinder Bhuee and Zafar Iqbal all received suspended sentences after pleading guilty to dangerous driving and streetracing at Birmingham Crown Court Monday.
Road safety charity Brake have now condemned the judge's decision to suspend each man's six month jail sentence for two years.
Jason Wakeford, spokesman for Brake, said: "It's shocking that these defendants escaped jail time because no one was killed or injured. Today's lenient sentencing illustrates clearly how tougher penalties for those who deliberately put people's lives at risk on the roads are well overdue.
West Midlands Police also highlighted the fact that the men were told to expect custodial sentences at the previous hearing.
Paul (27), Bhuee (24) and 33-year-old Iqbal went on to admit dangerous driving and street racing and at Birmingham Crown Court and were given six-month jail terms suspended for two years and ordered to carry out 100 hours of unpaid community work.
They were also handed £1,050 in court costs and charges and were told to attend a driver rehabilitation course; all three were banned from driving for 12 months and will have to pass an extended re-test in order to get their licences back.
They had each previously been given six-month suspended jail terms and ordered to pay £750 civil court costs for breaching the Birmingham Car Cruising Injunction introduced last year across the city.
