UPDATE: After serving only four months of a one year sentence, Gurjit Dhillon, the Surrey driver who killed 83-year-old Pritam Benning when he crashed his sports car into a bus shelter in September 2009, was granted an early release by the Parole Review Panel today.
The original sentence of one year in jail handed to Dhillon last year had stunned the Benning family but today’s decision did not come as a shock.
“I wasn’t really surprised, it just seems with other cases… that’s where it was going,” Benning’s youngest son Manjit said.
“And we were preparing for the worst because if he got denied it would have felt kind of like a victory. But it looks like he’s going to get out and he did.”
Asked if the decision hurt, Manjit said, yes because Dhillon admitted to everything at the panel.
“He admitted that he was speeding. He admitted that nothing was wrong with his car. And he admitted there was another car stopped there at the light and that he gunned it. It’s too bad he didn’t admit it while he was in court.”
Dhillon served four months of his original one-year sentence and will be released from jail in a few days.
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A Surrey driver who killed an elderly man when he crashed a sports car into a bus shelter was in court today for sentencing.
28- year-old Gurjit Dhillon received one year in jail, two years of probation and a 5-year driving prohibition.
The Crown had asked for at least two and a half years in prison and a 10-year driving ban. The defence said Dhillon has no criminal record, and asked for a suspended sentence.
Dhillon was driving his brother’s corvette in September of 2009 when he swerved off the road and struck 83-year-old Pritam Benning.
Benning never regained consciousness and died a few days later.
Benning’s son Manjit said the family was surprised to learn the sentence.
“I did not expect that low of a sentence,” says Manjit Benning. “My Dad came to this country thinking this is a better country. But I am wondering if he would be thinking that right now.”
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