Met Police driver's sentence revealed as colleague found guilty

A Met PC has been jailed for causing the death of a woman he ran over in his police car, it can now be reported.

Nadeem Patel, who drove at a top speed of 83.9mph on the night of the crash, admitted causing the death by dangerous driving of Shante Daniel-Folkes, 25, in Brixton, south London, on 9 June 2021.

This could not be reported until the trial of a colleague ended.

PC Gary Thomson, 31, was earlier found guilty at the Old Bailey of careless driving over the same incident.

In February, Patel, 28, pleaded guilty to causing Ms Daniel-Folkes' death and was sentenced to three years in prison and disqualified from driving for 54 months.

Thompson, from Sussex, has been fined £500 and his driving licence was endorsed with five penalty points. He was cleared of the more serious charge of dangerous driving.

Sentencing Thompson earlier, Judge Mark Lucraft KC called for the Metropolitan Police to consider setting maximum speed limits for officers responding to incidents in residential areas.

"Driving at speeds in excess of motorway speeds along roads with the characteristics of Stockwell Road - whilst classified as an A-road - poses obvious risks," he said.

During Patel's sentencing in February, Judge Lucraft told him he had driven at a "grossly excessive" speed that was "far in excess of that which was safe given the prevailing road conditions" - even making allowance for the fact he was responding to an emergency call and not bound by the 30mph speed limit.

The court heard that Patel and Thomson had been responding to a 999 call in separate marked police cars.

Ms Daniel-Folkes was walking across Stockwell Road at about 23:10 BST, close to a pedestrian crossing, when Thomson's vehicle passed her with its emergency lights and siren activated.

Three or four seconds later, as she continued to cross the road, she was struck by Patel's vehicle.

He had switched off his front emergency lights so not to affect Thomson's vision in the lead vehicle but did have his siren activated.

Patel had reached a peak speed of 83.9mph just 115m from the car's final stopping point. His car was travelling at about 55mph when he hit Ms Daniel-Folkes.

When he sentenced Patel in February, Judge Lucraft referred to "moving" statements from her family, who described her as "kind, funny, loving and very creative".

Cdr Seb Adjei-Addoh, in charge of policing in Lambeth, described the circumstances of Ms Daniel-Folkes' death as "tragic".

"Our Police Community Engagement team will be working hard to listen and respond to local concerns stemming from this incident and trial verdict over the coming days," the commander added.

Amanda Rowe, director of the police watchdog, said the incident had had had a "devastating impact" on the victim's family.

She said: "PC Patel drove at excessive speeds at night-time throughout busy south London streets and, though he was responding to a report of an emergency incident, it does not excuse his dangerous driving behaviour which tragically resulted in a young woman's death.

"The convictions of these officers shows that they have been held accountable."

Follow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected]