A dangerous driver who killed two people and injured a third person has been jailed after prosecutors used mobile phone data for the first time to prove he was driving at almost 100mph.

Bilal Tahir was jailed for 15 years after pleading guilty to two charges of causing death by dangerous driving and a third charge of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

He was travelling to work along the M20 on 17 October 2022 when his car crashed into the hard shoulder and hit Dr. Habiba Hajallie and Lisa Webber, killing them both.

A third person, Mark Heap, was left with serious injuries and had to spend three weeks in hospital.

There was no CCTV footage where the crash occurred, meaning data from the car’s airbag control module and Tahir’s mobile phone were used to show his speed leading up to the crash.

This showed that Tahir was driving close to 100 miles an hour as the crash occurred and had been travelling at over 90 miles an hour for the minute before the crash.

Moses Koroma, Senior Crown Prosecutor from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “The Crown Prosecution Service had to demonstrate clearly in this case that the defendant had been speeding in dangerous weather conditions, with torrential rain on the morning of the crash.

“Without CCTV evidence, we used data from the car itself and the defendant’s mobile phone. That phone evidence was analysed by an expert who described the phone speed data from the defendant’s phone as accurate and reliable.

“The phone evidence gave us very accurate evidence with speed, location, time and date recorded every second leading up to the collision and left the defendant with no option but to plead guilty to the charges against him.

“Our thoughts remain with the families of Dr. Habiba Hajallie and Lisa Webber and with Mark Heap and his family.”

Building the case 
Following the crash, eye witnesses described Tahir as being “brave” to be going so fast, given the weather conditions, with one saying that his vehicle had hit a patch of standing water.

Tahir originally told the police that he thought another car had hit him, but there was no evidence from the accident investigation that any other vehicle was involved.

The data from the airbag control module gave data from the five seconds before the collision and showed that the car was travelling at up to 98 miles an hour before the crash and at the point where it encountered water, it was likely to have been travelling at 94 miles an hour.

The mobile phone data provided more comprehensive information about Tahir’s driving in the minutes leading up to the crash, enabling the Crown Prosecution Service to prove that the collision was a direct result of Tahir’s dangerous driving given the road and weather conditions on the day.