A drug dealer accused of killing one of Gordon Ramsay’s wine waiters in London belatedly faces justice in France.
Prosecutors allege Mohamed Habib Miah was driving high on laughing gas at up to double the speed limit when he ploughed into Patrice Ippolito on a pedestrian crossing eight years ago.
Mr Ippolito’s grieving French parents begged police and the Crown Prosecution Service for action, with CCTV evidence apparently showing Miah at the wheel and inhaling nitrous oxide.
But the CPS declined to prosecute and pleas to Mayor Sadiq Khan and Theresa May, then prime minister, did not spark action.
Miah, 27, remains free but is finally facing a potential trial for manslaughter by dangerous driving, thanks to French prosecutors.
He was arrested last April by National Crime Agency officers working with the French and is now fighting extradition.
Miah appeared at Westminster magistrates court on Tuesday for an extradition hearing. Outside he vented foul-mouthed fury at the Daily Mail for reporting the case.
Mr Ippolito’s parents Serge and Celine, from Drome, southern France, were told by UK police after the crash that DNA tests on the car were delayed by the Grenfell fire and terror inquiries.
Mohamed Habib Miah is accused of killing one of Gordon Ramsay’s wine waiters in London
Prosecutors allege Mohamed Habib Miah was driving high on laughing gas at up to double the speed limit when he ploughed into Patrice Ippolito (pictured) eight years ago
They have spoken of their arduous campaign for justice. Mrs Ippolito said: ‘The wait is terrible. Patrice was a lovely man with a great future. I want to ask the people in the car, “How can you live with yourselves?”’
Her son, 25, had been in London for five years when in October 2017 he worked late as a sommelier at Ramsay’s Maze Grill restaurant in Mayfair before heading home.
Prosecutors said he was on a pedestrian crossing in Wapping, east London, at 4.30am when – hit by a speeding blue VW Golf – he was ‘thrown into the air and fell back violently on to the road’, 90 ft away. He died from head, spinal cord, chest and pelvic injuries.
Miah – who has served two prison sentences in the past six years for drug dealing but who told the court he manages Airbnb properties – was allegedly driving at as much as 62mph on impact.
He was among four men – allegedly inside the car – arrested later.
A policeman who knew Miah identified him from CCTV footage recorded on the night and fingerprint evidence is said to put him behind the wheel.
Just minutes before the collision, he was allegedly filmed driving the VW Golf into a Texaco garage.
Miah and his front passenger seem to inhale the contents of a ‘laughing gas’ balloon, before nitrous oxide cartridges are tossed out the window.
Miah remains free but is facing a potential trial for manslaughter by dangerous driving, thanks to French prosecutors
Police found the car with a smashed windscreen nearby with cartridges and balloons inside. Possessing nitrous oxide is banned and repeat users face two years in jail while dealers could get 14.
An occupant of the Golf, Mohammed Zuber Ahmed, told police he had driven earlier in the evening but stopped after tiring. He refused to answer questions at a London inquest in 2019 and prosecutors later decided there was not enough evidence to identify the driver.
Miah, of Wapping, is fighting extradition, claiming vermin and overcrowding in French jails would infringe his human rights.
His lawyer Joel Smith KC said: ‘This was an offence alleged against a UK citizen, committed in the UK, with UK witnesses.’ He added a prosecution in France was not ‘in the interests of justice’.
The case continues next month.
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