A garage owner who falsified the MOT of a car involved in a crash that killed three people weeks later has been handed a community order. Neil John Lewis, 47, of Ely in Cardiff, admitted falsifying the MOT of the Volkswagen Tiguan which crashed into woodland in St Mellons in March 2023, at an earlier court appearance.
Having pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation, Lewis was handed a 12-month community order and ordered to complete 100 hours of unpaid work during a sentencing hearing at Cardiff Magistrates' Court.
Fatal crash details
Darcy Ross and Eve Smith, both 21, and driver Rafel Jeanne, 24, died after the VW crashed at 2.03am on Saturday, March 4, 2023. Sophie Russon and Shane Loughlin were seriously injured but survived.
Despite the first missing persons reports coming in on the Sunday evening, the car was not located for two days, having reared off the road and crashed deep in undergrowth near a roundabout on the A48.
Night out before the crash
The group had been on a night out at The Muffler social club in Maesglas, Newport, on March 3 before travelling in the Volkswagen Tiguan to the Trecco Bay Caravan Park in Porthcawl, where they are said to have spent some time in one of the caravans on site.
A short time later they left the site and were last seen at about 2am in the Pentwyn area of Cardiff, dropping off a sixth member of their group.
Police misconduct hearings
Four Gwent Police officers now face gross misconduct hearings over their handling of the missing person reports and subsequent house searches. The IOPC said it was alleged that a police constable had failed to carry out "basic enquiries" and not communicated appropriately with the families who reported loved ones missing.
The police complaints watchdog also detailed how two police constables had allegedly failed to conduct house searches as per Gwent Police policy and subsequently given dishonest accounts to their supervisor and IOPC investigators. A police sergeant also has a case to answer for gross misconduct over their supervision of the missing persons enquiry.
During an earlier hearing where Lewis pleaded guilty to the offence, angry scenes erupted outside Cardiff Magistrates' Court. The family of Ms Ross, one of the victims in the fatal crash, brandished a framed photo of her at the garage owner and shouted: "Darcy Ross, remember her name."
