‘Show off’ Uber Eats driver who killed student, 21, in crash as she walked home arm-in-arm with pal is jailed for 9yrs

A SHOW-OFF driver was “drifting and skidding” around a town centre when he lost control and killed a student. Natasha Thorp, 21, was walking arm-in-arm with her best friend Cerys Cartwright after what had been a “perfect” night out when tragedy struck. Natasha Thorp was killed when Saleh Mahmoud Taha Hassan smashed into her as she walked with her best friend Credit: BPM Saleh Hassan outside Birmingham Magistrates Court Credit: BPM The university student was hit by Saleh Mahmoud Taha Hassan as he careered off the road in his Toyota Corolla shortly before midnight. Natasha sadly died from a traumatic head injury caused by blunt force trauma. Sign up for The Sun newsletter Thank you! Her friend Cerys, also 21, was seriously injured in the horror collision and suffered a broken foot. The pair had been walking along Brassington Avenue in Sutton Coldfield on August 22 last year after leaving the ASH pub and heading towards The Station. Nearly 1,000 mourners attended Natasha’s funeral Credit: JustGiving Hassan was jailed for nine years and four months Credit: BPM Cerys told Birmingham Crown Court she and Natasha were in good spirits and walking arm-in-arm “as we typically do”. Natasha was closest to the road, with Cerys on the inside, when Hassan lost control of his car at 11.53pm. CCTV captured the 20-year-old repeatedly “drifting and skidding” around the A5127 and even circling a roundabout several times. At one point he lost control but managed to regain it. Most read in The Sun But rather than stop, Hassan then asked his passenger to film him drifting the car. He was later clocked travelling at 46mph on the 30mph road before he lost control again while leaving the roundabout. His Toyota veered towards the pavement and smashed into Natasha and Cerys. Witnesses rushed over to help the stricken women, while one man confronted Hassan and repeatedly punched him before police arrived. Cerys, who had been Natasha’s best friend for ten years, later told the court: “You are to blame.” She described Natasha as “full of life” and a “ray of sunshine”, saying their night out had been “perfect” until the moment everything changed. Natasha’s devastated dad described his daughter as “one in a million” who had “her own unique style”. He said: “When she walked into a room it was like someone had switched a light on.” Hundreds of tributes and flowers were left at a shrine for Natasha at Gracechurch Shopping Centre following her death. Nearly 1,000 mourners attended her funeral to say goodbye to the much-loved 21-year-old university student. Hassan, of Viscount Road, Sutton Coldfield, had passed his driving test less than two months before the crash. He was not insured to drive that night, despite having carried out Uber Eats deliveries earlier in the day. The court also heard an examination of his Toyota found a brake defect which would have been obvious to him while driving. Hassan pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving, causing serious injury by dangerous driving and causing death by driving while uninsured. Judge Dean Kershaw described the CCTV footage of the collision as “horrific”. Hassan was jailed for nine years and four months and banned from driving for 12 years and eight months.