Tragic gran backs Scott appeal

Oct 6 2006 By Steve Johnson, Birmingham Mail

A GRANDMOTHER who has been rocked by a family tragedy is throwing her weight behind a growing campaign for tougher sentences for killer hit-and-run drivers.

Mrs Nicholls, of Sutton Coldfield, was outraged when taxi driver Ghulam Hussain was jailed for three years after the manslaughter of 17-year-old Scott Poll.

She is organising her own petition to add to those being collected in Wednesbury and West Bromwich by Scott's parents, Arthur and Sharon Poll, and others.

Mrs Nicholls, aged 58, said that she had been struck by family tragedy twice and could understand what the Poll family, of Lincoln Road, Wednesbury, were going through.

"I lost my 25-year-old daughter Cheryl 16 years ago. She suffered from anaemia and died in my arms. Three years ago I lost my 16-year-old grandson Dale to sudden adult death syndrome.

"I know what the Poll family are going through because I have been there myself. What their son must have suffered that night does not bear thinking about.

"For the driver to get just three years is outrageous and I am totally behind the family's campaign for tougher sentences for hit-and-run drivers.

"My daughter is a nurse at Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield and she is going to help me collect signatures on petitions which I shall hand over to the Poll family," she added.

Mrs Nicholls said signatures on the Justice for Scott petition would be collected in Sutton Coldfield and Perry Barr.

Mrs Poll, who organised a protest march on Sunday retracing the route taken by the taxi, said she welcomed all the support she could get.

Scott was struck by Hussain's taxi in Hollyhedge Road, West Bromwich, as he walked home after a night out.

His battered body came to rest in Hall Green Road, a mile away.

Hussein, 44, of Grange Road, West Bromwich, was sentenced at Wolverhampton Crown Court on September 18.

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