A man who abandoned another man and left him to die after crashing his car in Cheadle Heath has been jailed.

Mark McCormack,30 of no fixed address has been sentenced at Minshull Street Crown Court to six years in prison after pleading guilty to causing the death of Declan Blackurne, 21, by dangerous driving. He will also be disqualified from driving for eight years.

The court was told that in the early of hours of 24 November last year, an Police officer in an unmarked police car spotted McCormack driving a Honda Civic at speed on BirdHall Lane, Cheadle Heath and began to follow him.

After following the car for a short period, the driver of the police car activated the blue lights, instructing McCormack to pull over before he turned onto the car park of the Micklebrook Pub.After circling the car park briefly, the Honda suddenly accelerated and turned onto Councillor Lane before reaching speeds in excess of 80mph in an attempt to flee from police.

As the pursuit came close to the junction with Brookhead Drive, McCormack lost control of the Honda, flipping off the carriageway at the offside and hitting a lamp post, telephone junction box and a wooden telegraph pole at such speed that all were broken in to halves.

As the car came to a stop he then jumped out of the car and ran away, leaving Declan Blackburne in the car with unsurvivable injuries. He was taken to hospital and sadly died on Tuesday 6 December 2016.

McCormack presented himself at Cheadle Health Police Station where he was arrested. At the time of the arrest he had traces of cannabis, cocaine and benzoylecgonine in his system.

Sergeant Mark Thomas of GMP’s Serious Collision Investigation Unit said: “This was a completely avoidable incident which resulted in the death of a man, leaving his family devastated.

“There is no excuse for driving dangerously and Mark McCormack will have to live with the fact that his stupidity that morning caused this man’s death.Although this sentence won’t bring Declan back, I hope it will go some way to giving his family some comfort as they continue to rebuild their lives following his death.”

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here