MELBOURNE – A 30-year-old Indian-origin taxi driver in Australia has been sentenced two years in prison, suspended after four months, on charges of dangerously operating a vehicle that caused the death of a man last year.
Arminder Singh was sentenced on Friday after he pleaded guilty to the charges.
“It was a short-lived mistake with catastrophic consequences,” judge Brian Devereaux told Singh, as he sentenced him in Brisbane district court recently.
Dean Thomasson, 47, was on his way home to Cornubia where he lived with his parents when he was hit by the cab driven by Singh late one July night last year.
Dean later died from his fatal injuries.
“He was the love of our lives,” Helen Thomasson, mother of Dean who was deaf from a young age, said.
“When we got the phone call to come and identify him, 12 months ago today, it broke our hearts,” she said.
The court heard that Singh, who was now an Australian citizen, has a wife and a baby in India.
It was told that his jail term would affect the family as there was no social security in India.
Devereaux sentenced him to two years, suspended after four months, and banned him from driving for nine months.
