Italian driver Alfredo Ciociola receives three years for fatal Moray crash

An Italian driver has been sentenced to three years in prison following the death of five people on the A96 in Moray .

Alfredo Ciociola was imprisoned today at the High Court in Livingston.

Following a majority verdict by a jury last month the 50-year-old was convicted of causing death by careless driving on July 26, 2018.

Ciociola was in charge of a Fiat Talento minibus which collided with a Nissan X-Trail between Keith and Huntly.

Three passengers were killed in the Nissan which had been travelling back from Elgin.

They were Ted Reid (63) from Macduff, and Evalyn Collie (69) and Audrey Appleby (70) who both lived in Aberchirder.

The two minibus passengers who lost their lives were Ciociola's four-year-old son Lorenzo and Frances Saliba Patanè (63).

Ciociola had been driving a hired minibus while on holiday in Scotland with family and friends.

During his trial the defendant maintained he had not fallen asleep at the wheel.

However other motorists told the court that, before the collision, they had seen the minibus regularly brake and veer onto the wrong lane at bends.

Morag Smith, who was driving the other vehicle and was badly injured in the crash, welcomed the jail term handed down to Ciociola.

In a statement released through Digby Brown Solicitors she said: "Although I am surprised by the sentence I welcome it.

"However it also strange because in reality the damage is done and the length of time Ciociola spends behind bars makes no real impact on my day-to-day life.

"I now just want to get on with rebuilding some kind of future."