A MOTORIST who caused the deaths of two women by driving at speeds of up to 140mph has been jailed for six years.

Tien Cheng, 28, lost control of his Mercedes CLS and crashed while travelling towards York on the A64 near Tadcaster in the early hours of November 28 last year.

Rear passengers Jingning Wang, 20, from York, and Quan Qin, 21, died when they got out of the car and were struck in the right-hand lane of the carriageway by a red Mazda.

The Mazda driver, Kevin McGregor, 40, of Gladstone Street, Acomb, York, was yesterday cleared of causing the women’s deaths through careless driving.

But the same jury at York Crown Court convicted Taiwanese national Cheng of causing their deaths by dangerous driving.

Cheng, of Redcliffe Parade West in Bristol, who was driving without a valid UK driving licence at the time of the crash, wept as he was sentenced to six years in prison and banned from driving for ten years.

The Recorder of York, Judge Stephen Ashurst, told him: “Your distress and your loss of liberty will be temporary. For your victims and their families their loss is permanent. I have read moving statements from your passengers’ parents, who at the time in China were only permitted to have one child.

“All their hopes and expectations were focused on their daughters. They had put them through education in the UK and each family was looking forward to their success in future years.”

Judge Ashurst told Cheng, who came to England as a student in 2003, he was in no doubt the two women died because of the “grossly excessive speeds” he was driving at in dark and wet road conditions.

He said: “One witness described you as travelling like a rocket. Another said you were driving the fastest he had ever seen a car travelling on a British road. A man travelling back to York at 100 miles per hour described you as overtaking him and disappearing within seconds. Therefore it seems to me it would be appropriate to say you were travelling at a speed between 120 and 140 miles per hour.”

Judge Ashurst told Cheng he had displayed arrogance by telling a probation officer that he believed he was the victim and had done nothing wrong.

Mitigating, defence barrister David Dixon said Cheng had been waking up at about 2am every morning since the crash to see visions of his two friends on the ground.

“The consequences still live with him and live with him to a large degree,” he said.

He said Cheng, who has no previous convictions, was running a successful recycling business at the time of the crash.

Mr McGregor showed no visible reaction as the jury gave their not guilty verdicts on him. During the trial, he had spoken of his “total shock” when his car hit the two women and how it had been difficult for him to get on with normal life afterwards.