A mortgage broker who totalled his Lamborghini and left a passenger with life-altering injuries after trying to pass a Toronto streetcar at nearly three times the speed limit has been handed a two-and-a-half year prison sentence.
The driver, Jason Georgopoulos, was sentenced last month after previously being found guilty of dangerous driving causing bodily harm in connection with the May 12, 2021 collision near Queen Street and Woodbine Avenue.
The defence in the case had asked the judge for a conditional sentence of 12 months to be served in the community while the Crown requested a prison sentence of two-and-a-half to three years.
In her written decision, Superior Court Justice Anne Molloy sided with the Crown and noted that the prison sentence was necessary to discourage other drivers from similarly dangerous conduct.
Molloy also handed Georgopoulos a six-year driving ban that will take effect at the conclusion of his prison sentence.
“For me, the most aggravating factor is the extreme disregard for the safety of others and the sense of arrogance and entitlement that accompanied this highly dangerous conduct. I am also concerned about what can be done to curb this kind of driving, which is such a threat to the safety of the community,” she wrote. “That is why I consider the principles of denunciation and deterrence to be foremost in this exercise. Drivers of motor vehicles need to know that this kind of conduct is criminal, will not be tolerated, and will be met with jail time, not just a speeding ticket.”
During Georgopoulos’s trial, the court heard that he had taken his administrative assistant for a drive along Queen Street East in his new $400,000 Lamborghini on the night in question.
Molloy noted in her decision that for about six blocks Georgopoulos was seen repeatedly “speeding up over a short distance and then stopping, apparently to give his passenger a thrill.”
The ensuing police investigation ultimately determined that Georgopoulos reached a speed of 112 kilometres per hour as he attempted to pass a streetcar in a 40 kilometre per hour zone.
However, Georgopoulos didn’t make it and subsequently crashed into a parked Jeep before making contact with the streetcar and hitting a Mercedes that was parked in front of the Jeep.
Georgopoulos was able to walk away from the crash but his administrative assistant sustained life-altering injuries and was placed in a medically induced coma for 15 days.
“In this case, the nature of the driving that preceded the collision is aggravating. Mr. Georgopoulos was showing off in an egregious way, and in a manner dangerous to the public. This was not a mere lapse in judgment or a moment’s inattention. It was deliberately dangerous behaviour. The fact that there were many other people in the area who could have been seriously injured, if not killed, is also aggravating,” Molloy wrote in her decision.
Judge took issue with driver’s testimony
During his trial, Georgeopoulos told the court that he had limited memory of the crash because of a concussion.
He said that he did not recall driving recklessly or seeing the parked cars in the curb lane ahead but did accidentally change gears which would explain the sudden acceleration.
Molloy, however, said in her decision that she found Georgeopoulos’s testimony during the trial to be “inconsistent, illogical, unreliable, and not credible.”
She wrote that while she accepts that Georgeopoulos is remorseful, she believes he lacks “lacks true insight into his criminal conduct.”
She also said that the life-altering impact of his actions on his passenger, including a permanent seizure disorder that she now lives with, are a “seriously aggravating factor.”
“Everything about her life has changed. She is no longer the fun-loving, hard-working, independent young woman she was before this happened. She now lives in pain, anxiety, and paranoia. She has no fun. She cannot work. She cannot live independently. Ironically, her driver’s license has been permanently revoked,” Molloy wrote.