A TEENAGE driver who caused the death of a hairdresser when he crashed his car while speeding has had his driving ban reduced on appeal.

Emma Louise Gorman, 21, died from severe head injuries after 19-year-old VJ Brand lost control of his car and crashed into a bungalow in Richmond Terrace, Darwen, on February 6 last year.

Brand, of Mowbray Avenue, Blackburn, was driving at around 40mph in a 30mph zone, while Emma, of West View, Redlam, Blackburn, who was sitting in the back, was not wearing a seatbelt.

She was hurled through the rear passenger window and hit the corner of the building, the appeal judges were told.

Brand was sentenced to 20 months youth custody on December 14 last year at Preston Crown Court, after earlier pleading guilty to causing death by dangerous driving.

He was also banned from the road for five years.

Lord Justice Stanley Burnton, Mrs Justice Dobbs and Judge Michael Pert QC, at London’s Criminal Appeal Court, refused an appeal against the length of his custodial term – but agreed to reduce his driving ban from five years to two.

The court heard that Emma was sitting in a rear passenger seat when Brand, 18 at the time, lost control of his silver Peugeot 106 at around 5.35pm.

Brand had been driving between 39 and 42 miles per hour around a bend when he struck a kerb, causing the car to spin sideways across the road, crash through a fence and hit the corner of the home.

Brand’s lawyers protested that he had been treated too harshly by the sentencing judge, both in terms of the custodial sentence he was given and the driving ban.

Lord Justice Burnton, giving the court’s judgment, dismissed the argument about the sentence of detention, saying it was fully justified in the circumstances of Miss Gorman’s tragic death.

But, allowing the appeal against the ban, the judge concluded it had been too long for someone of Brand’s age.

The judge stressed that the court’s decision did not reflect on the seriousness of the offence or the consequences for Miss Gorman and her family.