Richard Frost: 117mph double death crash driver jailed Published duration 26 March 2018

media caption Richard Frost: Double fatal 117mph driver caught on CCTV

A motorist who hit speeds of 117mph before killing two pedestrians when he drove along the verge on the wrong side of the road has been jailed.

Richard Frost, 39, ploughed into Thomas Fletcher, 19, and Thomas Northam, 22, from behind along the B1091 at Yaxley, Cambridgeshire, in January 2017.

Frost had binged on cocaine for 18 hours and then fled the scene.

He admitted causing death by dangerous driving and was jailed for 12 years and one month at Cambridge Crown Court.

image copyright Cambridgeshire Police image caption Richard Frost was on police bail when he killed two pedestrians

Frost, of Dorset Avenue, Chelmsford, was also banned from driving for 11 years and seven months.

Sentencing Frost, Judge David Farrell QC said: "There's no doubt in my mind that your behaviour encompassed a most appalling, deliberate and flagrant disregard for the rules of the road and not a care for the danger that you caused to other road users including vulnerable pedestrians."

At a previous hearing, prosecutor Jonathon Polnay told the court that Frost picked up two passengers, Tracy Anderson and James Archer, in Essex on 2 January, the day before the crash, and drove to Grimsby and then Boston in Lincolnshire.

image copyright Family/Facebook image caption Thomas Fletcher (left) and Thomas Northam died in the crash

"Everyone in the car was taking drugs," said Mr Polnay, who added Ms Anderson was putting cocaine into Frost's hand so he could take it while driving.

Frost was using the hard shoulder and lay-bys to undertake vehicles at speed and one witness described his control of the BMW X5 as "driving like a nutter".

On a 999 call played to the court another said "if he doesn't run into someone or kill someone it will be a miracle".

Judge Farrell described it as a "prolonged, persistent" course of bad driving and said Frost's drug taking had played a more significant impact than a pre-existing mental disorder.

image copyright Paperpix.uk image caption The men died after being hit by Richard Frost's BMW X5

After the crash at about 11:00 GMT, Frost fled the scene with a suitcase containing £72,000, making off through fields and assaulting a man who tried to make him wait for police.

Officers found him asleep at his mother's house in Chelmsford later that evening and the suitcase was found in the garden.

Frost also admitted two counts of common assault and one of money laundering at a previous hearing.

PC James Thorne, from Cambridgeshire Police, said: "This was the worst piece of driving I have ever, and probably will ever, see.

"Frost drove his X5 in a manner which was beyond dangerous and placed an untold amount of people at risk of serious injury."

The judge also ordered that Stefon Mills, who chased Frost, was assaulted by him and then dialled 999, be awarded £500 in recognition of his bravery.