THE nightmare the Houston family have had to endure since their daughter Amy was run over and killed is unimaginable.

First there was the horror of the accident itself in which Amy, 12, was hit by a car which did not stop after she ran out from between parked vehicles in Newfield Drive, Fishmoor, Blackburn.

Then there was the ordeal of the arrest of Aso Mohammed Ibrahim and the pathetic sentence of just four months imprisonment he received after being convicted of driving whilst disqualified, without insurance and failing stop after an accident.

Some people made emotive use of the fact that the accused was an asylum seeker as being a reason why in some way the penalty should have been higher.

But Amy's father Paul resisted this temptation to press home with dignity the extremely strong case of the need for a change in the law.

He argued with incontestable logic that someone who sets out on the road while disqualified and therefore automatically uninsured and then kills someone should receive a high penalty because of the recklessness they have shown.

Now Hyndburn MP Greg Pope has put down a Commons Motion calling for the creation of an offence of causing death with a vehicle while banned from driving with the same 14 year maximum jail term as causing death by dangerous driving.

The Government should put it on the statute book.