Driver who killed cyclist while racing at 80mph asks for provisional licence back

A driver from Hull who was banned from driving for seven years after killing a cyclist as he and a friend raced their cars at speeds of up to 80mph has asked a court to return his provisional licence two years early.

Cyclist Ann Leung, aged 36, a CTC member and Community Participation Officer at Hull City Council, was killed instantly on 1 April 2004 when she was hit from behind on the city’s Holwell Road by a car driven by mechanic Michael Chapman, now aged 29, who had never passed his driving test.

In 2005, Chapman pleaded guilty at Hull Crown Court to causing death by dangerous driving, using a vehicle without insurance, failing to report an accident and failing to stop after an accident and was jailed for four years, with his licence suspended for seven years.

Chapman’s friend, John Eyre, now aged 32, was disqualified from driving at the time of the fatal crash and was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment and banned from driving for life after pleading guilty at a separate hearing to John Eyre pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to causing death by dangerous driving, driving while disqualified, using a vehicle without insurance, failing to report an accident and failing to stop after an accident.

The Hull Daily Mail reports that Recorder Simon Phillips QC at Hull Crown Court refused to hear an application by Chapman to lift his ban, telling him that it needed to be made in front of Judge Roger Thorn QC, the judge who sentenced him.

It is not known whether Chapman intends to make a new application.