A DRIVER with no licence or insurance has been jailed for six years for causing the death by dangerous driving of a "lovely young girl" after a judge said he had been showing off at the wheel.
Gareth Salmon was seen laughing in his Seat Ibiza car in the moments before he lost control.
His passengers included his cousin Liam Hitchcock, from Carlton, and his fiancee Liane Ruddy, 18, from Eastwood.
The car left Spring Road, Lambley, and hit a telegraph pole at about 3.50pm on April 11.
Liane, a nearside passenger whose seat belt was defective, was flung through the back window.
Salmon was later arrested and charged with causing her death by dangerous driving, which he admitted at court last month.
As Judge Michael Stokes sentenced him on Friday, he said that in his judgement Salmon had been showing off.
"Because of your utterly stupid, reckless and criminal behaviour a lovely young girl of 18 has lost her life.
"She had everything before her.
"Her mother is bereft, her friends and family devastated, and it was all caused by your deliberately illegal behaviour."
Salmon, 31, of Beckett Court, Gedling, was banned from driving for seven years.
Speaking after the hearing, Liane's fiance Mr Hitchcock, 21, said: "I think he could have done with getting a lot longer but it's still not going to bring her back.
"He's taken someone's life yet he only got six years."
Salmon had been in trouble before for drink-driving and driving whilst disqualified, the court heard.
On the day of the accident, he met up with Liane and her fiance and friends and they went out in the Seat.
When they reached Spring Road, he put his foot right down.
An officer in the case calculated the average speed at between 64mph and 78mph.
Salmon told police that he had swerved to miss something white that he had seen in the road.
"He was obviously showing off and demonstrating how far this car could go," said the judge.
"He was driving at a grossly excessive speed and the seat belts in the rear of the vehicle were defective."
In mitigation for Salmon, Michael Evans told the court: "Nothing I say is going to minimise the death of such a promising young life and nothing my Lord does will in any way equate the loss of that life."
After the accident, Salmon sustained physical injuries. He still has flashbacks, panic attacks and nightmares.
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