A 28-year-old Irish man has been jailed for causing the death of a 47-year-old woman by dangerous driving.
Michael Connors of Dublin, was also sentenced for causing serious injury by dangerous driving to the woman’s husband, and a 16-year-old girl.
Connors appeared before Mold Crown Court yesterday, where he was jailed for 13 years and one month.
He previously admitted all three charges after he was extradited to the UK on 16 June this year following his arrest by the Garda in Dublin, Ireland on 11 March 2026, in connection with the collision.
On 24 March 2025, Connors was driving a silver Mercedes car when he made off from police and collided with a Toyota car between Belgrave Road and Percy Road in Hightown, Wrexham.
Lydia La Polla, 47, from Wrexham, the driver of the Toyota car, sadly died from her injuries in Stoke hospital two days later on 26 March 2025.
Lydia’s husband, a passenger in her car, was serious injured in the collision.
Connors, and another male in the silver Mercedes, fled the scene of the collision, leaving two young passengers behind in the car.
One of them, a 16-year-old girl, was also seriously injured.
In a victim impact statement read out to the court on sentencing, Lydia’s husband said the death of his beloved wife had left him with a “profound sense of loss”.
“My life will never be the same again,” he wrote. “To say I am heartbroken is an understatement.
“Lydia was a wonderful mother to our children and they absolutely adored her. It breaks my heart to know that their mother won’t be there for their weddings, and she won’t be there to see them grow up and have children of their own.
“Our close family unit has been shattered into a thousand pieces, and it will never be the same again without Lydia.”
Lydia’s daughter added that losing her mother is a “pain that words cannot describe.”
She wrote: “This collision did not just take my mum from me; it took away the future I always imagined with her in it. It changed my family forever.
“I have lost the person who loved me unconditionally, who guided me through life, and who was always there whenever I needed her. No amount of time will ever heal that loss.
“The sadness never truly goes away; I have simply had to learn how to carry it.”
Speaking following sentencing, Chief Superintendent Jaqueline Downes said: “Our deepest sympathies remain with Lydia’s family, who continue to live with the devastating consequences of this incident.
“No one should ever leave their home and not return safely.
“Lydia’s family conducted themselves with the utmost dignity throughout this complex and protracted case, and I am grateful to them for their trust in our investigation.
“I would also like to thank the members of the public who came to assist those at the scene of the collision before the emergency services arrived.
“In addition to the prison sentence Connors will now serve, he must live with the knowledge that his actions resulted in Lydia’s death and has caused unimaginable pain to her family, as well as serious injury of two more people.
“This case demonstrates the very real dangers associated with driving dangerously and we hope this sentence serves as a warning to others about the potentially devastating consequences of such behaviour.”
