Driver who caused triple-fatal crash while trawling dating sites to have 'lenient' sentence reviewed

An HGV driver who killed three people when he ploughed into their vehicles on the A1 while looking at dating sites on his mobile phone is to have his sentence reviewed to determine if it was too lenient.

Ion Onut was jailed for eight years and 10 months following the “truly harrowing” crash on the northbound carriageway in county Durham last year.

Onut admitted three counts of causing death by dangerous driving.

His Scania lorry was travelling at 58mph when it struck another HGV and four cars before coming to rest at the central reservation and bursting into flames.

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• HGV driver jailed for eight years after causing fatal crash while trawling dating sites

Paul Mullen, 51, Elaine Sullivan, 59 and David Daglish, 57, all died as a result of the collision.

The 41-year-old lorry driver was rescued from his burning cab by members of the public and later arrested by police at the scene.

The sentence has now been referred to the Attorney General’s Office (AGO).

An AGO spokeswoman said: “We have received a request for this sentence to be considered under the unduly lenient sentence scheme.

“The law officers have 28 days from sentencing to consider the case and make a decision.”