THE family of a father-of-one killed by a driver racing on a public road say they will be serving a life sentence of grief whilst he has been jailed for seven years.

Ioan Harding, 22, of Ford Lane, Crewe, was given two concurrent seven-year jail terms at Chester Crown Court on Friday.

He was convicted of causing the death of two young fathers in a crash on Middlewich Road near Alvaston Hall last year. He was also banned from driving for eight years.

He had been racing down the road in the direction of Nantwich at about 1am on May 27, with his close friend Stephen Hicks, both 21 at the time.

Mr Hicks was on the wrong side of the road as he tried to overtake Harding.

His car collided with that of Adam Chadwick, a 20-year-old chef of Oldfield Road in Whee-lock who was on his way home from work at the Panama Hatty's restaurant at Spurstow.

Both he and Mr Hicks, of West Street, Crewe, were killed.

Adam's mother, Margaret Chadwick, said: 'We're the ones serving a life sentence of grief and unbearable heartache. 

'I don't think Harding will live with the consequences of his actions because as far as he is concerned he wasn't to blame in any way for the death of my son.

'We would like to have had some sort of apology from him for taking Adam away from his loving family and many friends and for leaving his three-year-old son without a daddy.'

His step-father Anthony Thornborrow added: 'Seven years is nothing. I would like to have seen a longer sentence.'

Investigating officer Sergeant Steve Griffiths said: 'This sentence should serve as a warning to drivers that roads cannot be used as race tracks.'

Mother hopes lessons will be learnt > > >

Mother hopes lessons will be learnt

POLICE and victims' families are pleading with road users to take more care after Ioan Harding was jailed for causing the deaths of two men in an horrific crash on Middlewich Road.

Nine people have died along the stretch of the road running from Nantwich to Wimboldsley in the last two years. Seven of those came in 2005.

Harding, 22, of Ford Lane in Crewe, was sentenced on Friday after being found guilty of two counts of causing death by dangerous driving on May last year following the crash near Alvaston Hall.

Now, almost a year after the Chronicle launched a campaign called Stop the Carnage Now!, police warn roads cannot be used as race tracks.

Sergeant Steve Griffiths said: 'We can only hope that the message will get across to people who use the roads in a dangerous and irresponsible way, and put other lives in jeopardy that they will face the full rigour of the law.'

And in a statement read out outside Chester Crown Court on Friday, Adam Chadwick's mother Margaret said: 'We hope Harding's sentence will act as a deterrent to stop young men thinking they can handle cars at high speeds which is being proven by these incidents happening time after time.'

Harding had been racing towards of Nantwich at about 1am on May 27 with his close friend Stephen Hicks, 21, father to a 22-month-old daughter. They were on their way to pick up a friend from Gregory's nightclub in Nantwich.

A key witness in the trial, taxi-driver Kenneth Saxon, said the pair had been racing parallel to each other for about three-quarters-of -a-mile before the smash, with Mr Hicks on the wrong side of the road as he tried to overtake.

Police evidence suggested Mr Hicks had been travelling at up to 90mph in the lead-up to the incident. nIn August 2005, motorcyclist Stephen Ireson, 34, of Stapeley, died after being involved in a collision with a car near the Pym's Lane junction on Middlewich Road.

Four more people died at the notorious Wistaston Green Road junction near the Rising Sun pub on September 11, 2005.

The crash took the lives of Lee Roberts, 21, and Darren Wilson, 34, of Crewe, and Willaston couple Franz and Janice Beran. Liam Cunliffe, 30, of Manor Avenue in Crewe, was jailed for nine years and banned from driving for 10 years after admitting causing their deaths.