The Court of Appeal has upheld a 21 month prison sentence imposed on a driver who exchanging more than 20 text messages before crashing into and killing another motorist. The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, Mr Justice Lloyd-Jones and Mr Justice Wyn Williams ruled that the jail term should not be varied after the Attorney General had referred the sentence as unduly lenient.

Curtis, aged 21, was driving at 70mph when she smashed into the back of a stationary car in November 2007. Phone records showed she had sent several text messages to friends while at the wheel, as well as calling her boyfriend and a taxi firm shortly before the collision in which Victoria McBryde was killed.

Miss McBryde, aged 24, had pulled over because of a flat tyre. She died at the scene. Curtis admitted using her phone during the journey but evidence showed that she had not been using the phone when the collision happened.

The Attorney General submitted that the sentence was unduly lenient as Curtis had been using her mobile phone to call, read, receive and write text messages while travelling at high speed during the journey.

Aidan Carr, a partner at Rowlands who regularly defends motoring prosections commented: “The length of sentence was upheld by the Court of Appeal, although the Attorney General had considered the jail term in this case to be unduly lenient. There is mounting public pressure for harsher sentences in situations where using mobile phones whilst driving has contributed to a road accident.”

Aidan Carr added: “The Police and Crown Prosecution Service are taking an increasingly harder stance on the use of hand held mobile phones whilst driving – they are regarded as an aggravating feature which can mean the difference between facing a charge of driving without due care and attention and one of dangerous driving. The Police routinely now seize mobile phones following a road traffic accident to investigate whether the driver was using the phone before or at the time of the accident.”