Michael Cooper, a former Derbyshire Police detective chief inspector, was jailed for three years and seven months after a fatal crash in Etwall in September 2021. A police officer on duty, he had crashed an unmarked car and later admitted causing the death of James Bane by dangerous driving.
At Nottingham Crown Court on Friday, Cooper pleaded guilty last week to causing death by dangerous driving and causing serious injury by dangerous driving. James Bane, 50, died at the scene, and a woman was thrown into the air in the collision.
Nottingham Crown Court and Etwall
Samuel Skinner KC told the court that Cooper should not have been driving the unmarked police car that day because he had an unexplained history of blackouts that happened without warning. Skinner said the issue had been raised years earlier, after a consultant neurologist asked Cooper in 2009 to stop driving and contact the DVLA.
Cooper was on duty and using the black Peugeot 208 without authorisation when he left Etwall Leisure Centre and drove along Egginton Road. Car data showed his foot was on the accelerator when the car swung to one side, and the impact crushed Bane between two parked cars shunted together by the force of the crash.
James Bane in Etwall
Bane, an educational psychologist and father-of-two, had just left a nearby school with a colleague when he was struck. He died in the road from pelvic injuries. His companion was thrown into the air.
After the collision, Cooper was confused and told members of the public he was a painter and decorator and did not know who the prime minister was. In a later police interview, he suggested he may have passed out at the wheel. He also refused officers permission to access his medical records.
In August Michael Cooper
In August 2024, Cooper was found to have committed gross misconduct and would have been dismissed from Derbyshire Police had he not already resigned. The case leaves a prison sentence in place for the crash and a disciplinary finding that came after the criminal driving case.
Kashif Saghir dismissed without notice in Derbyshire Police Officer Dismissed case showed how disciplinary action can follow separate from a criminal process; Cooper's case followed that path only after the guilty plea and sentence. Scott Ries killed in Wayne County shooting is a separate fatal-case report with a different sequence of consequences.
