STEPHEN and Susan Groves were well-known and well-liked. Mr Groves, a bus driver, was popular with passengers and colleagues alike. His wife had worked at the same bank for 25 years. They were devoted to one another and their family.

Mr and Mrs Groves were on their way to pick up their 16-year-old daughter when their lives were ended abruptly. Drink-driver Daemon Mackay ploughed into the back of their car at such speed that the couple were catapulted from it. Both died instantly.

It was a terrible, senseless double tragedy. It wrecked a family, left two children without parents and shocked the Selby community. Nearly 500 people attended their funeral. Bus company inspectors took the wheel behind Selby buses so drivers could attend. A town was in mourning.

The courts heard that the man responsible for this devastation, Daemon Mackay, had fled the scene of the accident. When the police caught up with him nearly two hours later, he was found to be one-and-a-half times the legal alcohol limit.

He was exceeding the 60mph speed limit, probably by some margin. On the night of the crash he went out to play snooker at the club where Mr and Mrs Groves' daughter worked.

Mackay was sentenced to five years in jail. Considering the horrific consequences of his gross recklessness, it was a fitting punishment.

But three Appeal Court judges disagreed. They have slashed Mackay's sentence by a year and a half. He could now serve just 21 months, less than a year in prison for each life he extinguished.

The decision by the London court has outraged the people of Selby and further devastated the Groves' family. Moreover, it utterly contradicts the Government's pledge to crack down on dangerous drivers.

Mackay, 29, has robbed two people of their lives and robbed two young people of their parents. Less than two years in jail equates to little more than a hiccup in his young life. It is an insult to justice.

Updated: 10:38 Friday, January 19, 2001