Drug driver excessive on cocaine who killed brother and 12-year-old nephew after hitting a tree in 73mph crash is jailed

A drug driver who caused his brother and 12-year-old nephew’s deaths by hitting a tree while four times the drug drive limit has been jailed for more than 13 years.

Michael Webb, 35, lost control of his Skoda Octavia while attempting to undertake a BMW at almost double the speed limit on John Reid Road, South Shields, on August 30, 2025.

The car tore in two when it crashed into a tree, killing Webb’s brother, Peter, 40, and his son, Ben.

Webb, who was injured in the crash, was found to have a ‘very low’ level of alcohol in his blood, but was found to be more than double the limit for cocaine, and four times the limit for cocaine breakdown product Benzoylecgonine (BZE). 

On Thursday, Webb, of Park Avenue, South Shields, was jailed for 13 years and six months after pleading guilty to two counts of causing death by dangerous driving.

Despite having killed his brother and nephew, ‘arrogant’ Webb smiled and laughed as he made his way into the court.

Ashleigh Webb, Peter’s wife and Ben’s mother, tearfully told the court ‘no sentence will ever be long enough’ as she said her brother-in-law’s driving had always been ‘an accident waiting to happen’.

She described her horror when police officers arrived at her home to say her husband had been in a crash, and realising their son was with him.

Mrs Webb said she initially told the officers her two children were in bed and went upstairs to get confirmation.

‘At the top of the stairs I turned cold when the realisation came over me that Ben was with Peter,’ she said.

Mrs Webb told the court her daughter was in her room but Ben’s bed was empty.

In a heartbreaking impact statement, she said from the witness box: ‘Our family of four has been ripped apart. All that has been left are two people who don’t know how the pieces are going to fit together again.’

Mrs Webb said Ben was about to start year eight at school and added: ‘Ben’s school blazer was hanging at the bottom of the stairs ready to start year 8 after the weekend. He never made it into the blazer of year eight.

She said her husband and son ‘were picked up by a man who called himself their brother and uncle, and willingly and purposefully put their lives in danger’.

‘He drove so dangerously and with so little consideration for anyone. He took my little boy away,’ Mrs Webb said.

‘Ben had no choice about getting in that car. You were the adult and it was your responsibility to protect him.

‘I will never get the answers I search for. Was my little boy scared? Did he shout for me? Was Peter shouting to slow down?’

She told the court she had not received an apology from Webb, who has instead ‘at every opportunity tried to protect himself’. 

Mrs Webb said images had been posted online of him smoking cannabis and drinking while on bail, saying it ‘shows a complete lack of remorse’.

Speaking directly to her brother-in-law, she said: ‘Peter previously made it known he didn’t like the way you drove… Michael, you have always been this way with cars.

‘You were an accident waiting to happen.’

She said she had been ‘genuinely terrified’ as a passenger in his car before and asked him to slow down, but he would just ‘laugh and continue’.

‘I felt you enjoyed the power you had of your passengers being helpless,’ she said.

Mrs Webb added: ‘Ben’s life was just beginning. All his firsts have been stolen from him, his first boys night out, starting working, his first love.

‘I was once a happy, fun loving person and lived life to the full, now I’m a shell of this woman. I’m broken.

‘Michael, no sentence will ever be long enough in my eyes for the destruction your recklessness has caused.’

Newcastle Crown Court heard Webb was likely to have been driving at about 73mph on the 40mph limit John Reid Road, South Shields, on August 30 last year when he tried to undertake a BMW.

Emma Dowling, prosecuting, said he applied emergency braking, probably realising the BMW driver was indicating and trying to move into the inside lane for him to overtake.

Webb lost control of the car and hit a lamppost, then a tree, with the impact tearing the car in two and killing his brother Peter, who was in the front passenger seat wearing a seatbelt.

Ms Dowling said Benjamin was sitting in the back seat and was propelled, with the rear of the car, back into the carriageway.

The court heard Webb had joined his brother and nephew who were watching football at a pub earlier in the day.

He drank one pint, before going back to his house and returning later to pick them up at about 8.50pm.

Witnesses who saw Webb’s car in the minutes before the crash estimated his speed as between 70mph and 90mph, with one describing it as ‘crazy dangerous’.

The BMW driver later told police he had overtaken another car and tried to move into the inside lane to make way for Webb, who was approaching him at speed from behind, but was ‘shocked’ to see Webb had already moved into the inside lane.

He said his pregnant partner, who was a passenger in the car, screamed as she saw the crash.

Judge Tim Gittins told Webb: ‘You should have been nowhere near the driving seat of any vehicle, let alone one carrying two passengers.’

The judge said: ‘The stark reality is that you were a serious or fatal accident waiting to happen that night by the manner of your driving.

‘It was, sadly, an entirely avoidable tragedy. The harm you have caused by your arrogant and dangerous driving is beyond calculation.

‘No words I can say, no sentence I can pass can properly measure two such vital lives lost.’

Judge Gittins banned Webb from driving for 15 years and five months, and said he must take an extended driving test before he can get behind the wheel again.

Speaking after the sentencing hearing Detective Sergeant Russell Surrey, of Northumbria Police, said: ‘This is a truly devastating collision, and the impact on this family is beyond comprehension.

‘I cannot begin to understand what the Webb family has been through over the last eight months; their pain must be beyond anything most of us could imagine.

‘The sympathies of everyone here at Northumbria Police continue to be with Peter and Ben’s family.

‘We remained committed to establishing the facts of this tragic collision, and it is through our comprehensive investigation that we have arrived at today’s outcome.

‘Now Michael Webb has been sentenced, I hope this gives the family the space they need to come to terms with their loss, and I would request that their privacy is respected during this extremely difficult time.’