VAN DRIVER WHO KILLED TEAM GB TRIATHLETE LOSES DEPORTATION APPEAL

A Romanian van driver jailed for causing the death of Team GB triathlete Rebecca Comins has lost an appeal against deportation. Vasile Barbu drove into the back of Comins' bicycle in June 2022 on the A40 near Raglan, Monmouthshire, during a cycling time trial. A five-day trial found him guilty of causing death by dangerous driving. Immigration judge Ian Boyes said the offending was "not an accident" and involved a vehicle "which should not have been on the road", ruling on 7 September that Barbu must be deported.

Comins was nine minutes into the time trial when Barbu tried to overtake rather than move into an empty lane of the dual carriageway. He told the court he had seen her but did not know why he hit her, and said he would ask himself the question for the rest of his life. A vehicle examiner found his van was unfit for the road and overloaded, increasing its braking distance and reducing its ability to turn. Barbu moved to Britain in 2002, worked as a chef at the Old Pandy public house and later became its owner.

Barbu married his wife Maria, from Romania, in 2004, and their twin children are now adults. He argued that deportation would be "unduly harsh", saying he had no home or income in Romania and saw the UK as his permanent home. His wife told the hearing she would not relocate to Romania and could not cope without him. Judge Boyes ruled that because the children no longer depend on their father, removing him would not be "unduly harsh" on the family, and that the public interest in deportation outweighed his private and family life.