Son is killed in road crash hours after attending his own father’s funeral when his drink and drug driving cousin smashed their Mercedes into a lamp-post while on their way home
- Michael Stock, 54, was high on a cocktail of drugs and alcohol when he crashed
- He was driving his Mercedes between 70mph and 89mph on residential streets
A son was killed in a road crash hours after attending his own father’s funeral when his drink and drug driving cousin smashed his Mercedes into a lamp-post on their way home.
Driver Michael Stock, 54, was high on a cocktail of cocaine, cannabis and alcohol when he crashed at 12.40am on May 1, 2021, on Graiglwyd Road in Townhill, Swansea, killing his second cousin Dean Heaven, 46.
Swansea Crown Court heard the two men had been at the funeral and wake of Mr Heaven’s father in the hours before the late night crash which saw Stock lose control of his car, clipping parked vehicles and span across a road before demolishing bollards, a lamppost and bus shelter, and flipping on its roof.
Prosecutor Brian Simpson said Stock had been driving between his Mercedes between 70mph and 89mph on residential streets when he crashed.
Mr Heaven was thrown three metres from the car and suffered fatal head injuries, while Stock was left hanging upside down from the seatbelt inside the wrecked vehicle.
Driver Michael Stock, 54, (pictured) was high on a cocktail of cocaine, cannabis and alcohol when he crashed at 12.40am on May 1, 2021, on Graiglwyd Road in Townhill, Swansea, killing his second cousin Dean Heaven, 46
Swansea Crown Court heard the two men had been at the funeral and wake of Mr Heaven’s father in the hours before the late night crash which saw Stock lose control of his car, clipping parked vehicles and span across a road before demolishing bollards, a lamppost and bus shelter, and flipping on its roof (Dean Heaven is pictured)
Police and paramedics arrived but Mr Heaven was pronounced dead at the scene in Townhill, Swansea, just after 1am, after suffering from ‘serious and unsurvivable head and rib fractures’.
Swansea Crown Court heard Stock had 117mg of alcohol in 100ml of blood – the legal limit being 80mg – when tested at 5am, five hours after the crash. He was also over the driving limit for cannabis and a metabolite of cocaine.
Judge Paul Thomas KC noted that he was ‘astonished’ back calculations were not made to work out Stock’s blood-alcohol level at the time of the crash.
Stock, of Skewen, Neath, admitted causing death by dangerous driving. He was jailed for two years and eight months, and banned from driving for five years.
Tim Evans, defending, said Mr Heaven was some whom Stock ‘loved dearly’ and he wished he could turn back the clock.
He said Stock wished he had been the one who had died instead of his cousin and showed ‘the ultimate level of remorse’.
Mr Evans said: ‘He never wants to get behind the wheel again and remember what he did to his beloved friend and cousin Dean’.
Prosecutor Brian Simpson said Stock had been driving between his Mercedes between 70mph and 89mph on residential streets when he crashed (pictured, junction of Townhill Road and Graiglwyd Road where the crash happened)
Judge Paul Thomas KC said Stock ‘drove at grossly excessive speed while out of his head’.
Mr Heaven’s daughter Jade read a family impact statement to the court, WalesOnline reports, where she gushed about her father being her ‘first love, best friend and the person who had made me smile’.
She added that there was ‘no goodbye, no answers… the only thing was have for certain is loss’.
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