A British tourist who allegedly used a fake passport to flee the US after injuring two children in a wrong way crash is now facing years in jail.
Thomas Robb, 22, pled guilty to driving a rented BMW in the wrong direction down an one-way street in Rockland County, near New York City, in July 2022.
He drove past at least two ‘No Entry’ signs before travelling the wrong way on the road and colliding into a 2017 Chevrolet Cruze, which then smashed into a 2021 Dodge Challenger.
Two brothers, then aged six and seven, were rushed to hospital after the crash with injuries. The younger boy suffered a critical head injury and his older brother spent a week in the hospital.
Their mother Jacquelyn Pachay, who was driving the Cruze, was left with a shattered wrist. At least four people in the Dodge Challenger also suffered injuries in the collision, the prosecution claims.
Robb, then 20, fled the scene with the other passengers in his vehicle, whom have been identified as his brother and two cousins, allegedly unaware that anyone had been hurt in the crash.
He was arrested soon after the crash and charged with assault, leaving the scene of an incident with serious physical injury, reckless endangerment, and reckless driving.
Robb was released on a $25,000 bail, but he failed to appear in court a week later resulting in a warrant for his arrest. He allegedly used his twin brother’s passport to return to the UK, prosecutors allege.
He was arrested in the UK nearly two years after his escape and extradited back to New York to face trial. He pleaded guilty in January this year and is due to be sentenced next month.
Robb was arrested in May last year at a private health clinic in Essex, 21 months after he fled the scene of the serious crash in Blauvelt, a small hamlet in Rockland County.
He was held in custody in Wandsworth, southwest London before having a full extradition hearing in November 2024 which resulted in him being handed over to US authorities. Robb appeared in Rockland County court on January 15.
He pled guilty at all 11 counts against him during a hearing on March 11. The judge ordered that he be remanded to Rockland County Jail without bail.
The Rockland District Attorney’s Office, which worked with the US Department of Justice to have Robb extradited, recommended a state prison sentence at the time of the plea.
‘With the defendant pleading guilty to all charges, sentencing is at the complete discretion of the Judge, not withstanding the District Attorney’s recommendation,’ a spokesperson for the DA told .
District Attorney Thomas Walsh, after the January hearing, told News 12: ‘We want to stand for the proposition that all people are to be presumed innocent, but you have to face your charges. And you cannot be rewarded for fleeing our jurisdiction and trying to avoid justice.’
Prior to his extradition, Robb lived in a large sprawling bungalow in Roydon, just outside Harlow, Essex. He reportedly used to work as a landscape gardener.
A family member refused to comment on the case but locals said they were aware of the situation and that the family are well known in the local area.
One resident told : ‘They’re a very established, popular family who’ve been in this area for quite a long time. They have a lot of relatives and friends around who are doing their best to support them.’
Robb was represented in the UK by Karen Todner, a renowned human rights lawyer who specialises in criminal defence and extradition cases.
She told that she could not discuss Robb’s case as his family did not want her publicly commenting on it.
Todner, ahead of his extradition hearing, issued a statement to The Sunday Express alleging that Robb was ‘absolutely traumatised’ by the incident.
‘He was on holiday abroad without his parents for the first time and simply made the mistake of driving on the wrong side of the road with terrible consequences. He is extremely remorseful,’ she said in September 2024.
The Pachay family has not publicly commented on Robb’s guilty plea, but did brand him a ‘coward’ after he failed to appear in court in August 2022.
Pachay, whose then-seven-year-old son was still hospitalised, told CBS News that she was ‘very angry’ and felt like Robb ‘doesn’t have any remorse’.
The young brothers’ grandmother Katherine Fort added: ‘I was at court and I think he’s a coward. Everyone says he made a mistake. If it’s a mistake, face the mistake’.
Robb is due back in court for sentencing in May.