Car dealer sentenced for fatal Range Rover accident

author: FutureCar Staff    

A used car dealer from Plymouth has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after being found guilty of manslaughter. Luke Dann used his Range Rover to crush pedestrian David Kelly to death following an argument between the two earlier this year. Although he was cleared of murder, he was unanimously convicted of manslaughter and received a 15-year prison sentence.

Judge Peter Johnson handed down the sentence, stating that Dann will serve two-thirds of it before being released on licence. In addition to the prison sentence, Dann was also given a seven-year driving ban. The judge emphasized that Dann deliberately drove at his victim and that his ego played a significant role in the death of David Kelly. The judge also noted that there had been no expression of remorse from Dann.

The court heard that Dann had been driving home after spending the evening at a nearby snooker club when he came across Kelly, who was waiting to buy drugs from an unknown dealer. An argument ensued, possibly after Kelly asked Dann if he had any drugs. Witnesses reported hearing shouting, the sound of an engine revving, and a thud.

Kelly was dragged underneath the vehicle and suffered significant injuries, including a major brain injury, skull fractures, skeletal injuries, and a severed aorta. After the incident, Dann fled the scene and called 999, claiming to have been attacked himself. The judge rejected Dann's claims of self-defense and described his actions as shameful.

Dann, who was a director of his own car dealership, Luke Dann Motors, between 2007 and 2010, has a history in the car industry. He opened his first dealership at the age of 18 and was later involved in another business, Billacombe Motors, which was targeted in a petrol-bomb attack in 2011. In 2012, the firm, by then named Charles Finlay Cars, had 18 vehicles seized by police as part of a suspected money laundering probe.

FutureCar Staff