Man who killed pregnant Hollyoaks actress in horror crash facing sentence review
Adil Iqbal pleaded guilty to killing Frankie, who was 17 weeks pregnant with her first daughter, Neeve, and causing serious injury to her nine-year-old son Thomas. Her four-year-old nephew, Tobias, was also badly hurt
Frankie Jules-Hough and her unborn baby died(
A BMW driver who killed former Hollyoaks[1] actress Frankie Hough in a 123 mph motorway crash will have his sentence reviewed after campaigners said the 12 years he was given was not enough.
Adil Iqbal was driving with one hand and holding his phone with the other to film himself, possibly to upload to Facebook[2], as he tailgated and undertook other vehicles and swerved across lanes, reaching 123mph in his father's BMW car on the M66 in Bury, Greater Manchester, on May 13 this year.
He pleaded guilty to killing Frankie, who was 17 weeks pregnant with her first daughter, Neeve, and causing serious injury to her nine-year-old son Thomas. Her four-year-old nephew, Tobias, was also badly hurt in the incident on the M66 near Bury, Greater Manchester, on May 13.
The case is now being considered under the 'unduly lenient scheme' which allows victims of crime, members of the public, and the Crown Prosecution Service to apply to the Attorney General, the Government's chief legal adviser, if they believe the sentences imposed by a judge are too low.
It is not clear who made the submission to the Attorney General's office in this case. The matter is currently under consideration and no decision has been made. The Attorney General's office has 28 days from the day the sentence was passed to review the case.
Inside Iqbal's car before the crash(
He was jailed for 12 years(
An Attorney General’s Office spokesman said: "After careful consideration, the Solicitor General has referred this case to the Court of Appeal under the Unduly Lenient Sentence Scheme as he agrees that it appears unduly lenient. It is now for the Court to decide whether to increase the sentence.”
During sentencing the court heard Frankie had pulled over on the hard shoulder with a tyre puncture, with her two sons and nephew in the car, and was making a call to say she would be late when she let out a “blood curdling scream”, Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester heard.
Iqbal’s BMW 140i undertook a motorbike then swerved, over compensated and hit a crash barrier before spinning around and ploughing into Ms Jules-Hough’s Skoda Fabia at an estimated 92mph. Ms Jules-Hough was on the phone to Thomas’ father who, along with other family, dashed to the scene of the mangled car wreck, as emergency services and air ambulances descended.
Dashcam footage and footage from Iqbal’s phone was shown to the court, watched by relatives of Ms Jules-Hough, some of whom gave heart-rending victim impact statements before the defendant was jailed. Passing sentence, Judge Maurice Greene told him: “She was killed as a result of the most indescribable reckless driving by you Adil Iqbal, leading to the devastation of a family.”
Earlier, the court was told Iqbal was convicted of driving without insurance in 2019 and in December 2021 posted a video to Facebook after filming himself speeding in a Lamborghini Huracan in Dubai. Two months before the deadly crash, he was given a warning by police after being stopped while racing an Audi car on public roads.
On the day of the smash, other drivers' dashcam footage caught Iqbal aggressively tailgating and undertaking on an A road leading to the motorway, with his car fish-tailing and swerving. Rob Hall, prosecuting, said Iqbal was filming himself at the time, adding: "It may have been his intention to upload this video to Facebook as well.
"In the seconds before the collision, the dash of the BMW shows approximate speeds of 107mph, up to 123mph, which shows more than once." Mr Hall said Iqbal dropped his phone as he lost control of the car and hit Ms Jules-Hough's car.
Seconds before, Tom Spencer, Thomas's father, took the call from her to say she would be late. He told the court in a statement: "'Hi, Tom', I heard Frankie say before she let out the most blood-curdling scream. Next the impact and then silence. After a few moments, I could hear people trying to help. I heard a man say, 'We're not supposed to move bodies."
Mr Spencer, who drove to the scene, added: "Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw." His son was "limp and lifeless" and he told him: "Daddy is here, mate. Please come back to me." Ms Jules-Hough's partner, Calvin Buckley, the father of unborn Neeve, arrived to find her lying unconscious and badly injured.
In a victim impact statement, Mr Buckley said: "What I witnessed that day, that weekend, those hours of desperation, those minutes praying for a miracle or those seconds watching my partner take her last breaths, will stay with me for a lifetime."
Frank Hough, Ms Jules-Hough's father, said his family has been devastated "all because a young man wanted to show off, wanted to show his friends on social media how daring and cool he thought he was. Our worlds have been torn apart and for what? So this boy could try to make himself feel like a big man."
Iqbal was also banned from driving for 14 years.