Pouting with a side-eye glance into the camera beneath perfectly manicured eyebrows, Natasha Allarakhia could have been posing for a social media snap on a night out.
But the mother-of-two was not sharing an impromptu pic with friends – she was posing for a police mugshot after killing two young men in a horror car crash.
Allarakhia killed teenagers William Ray, 17, and Eddie Shore, 18, who had just finished their A-Levels, after guzzling booze at the wheel of her flash Audi Q2.
The 36-year-old mum had been driving at 96mph on the 60mph A17 at North Rauceby, Lincolnshire, with her partner and two young daughters – aged just seven and 12 – when she failed to see a Ford Fiesta that had stopped at a set of temporary traffic lights.
She did not apply her brake until just one second before the collision, causing her to ram into the back of the Fiesta at 70mph.
William – who had been driving the Fiesta – and the three passengers were rushed to hospital, where he and his friend Eddie tragically died.
A second passenger Jack Prince, then 17, suffered life changing injuries and a third passenger, Luke Wood, also sustained injuries.
But while a judge, who sentenced Allarakhia to 10 years last week, felt she was ‘genuinely remorseful’, her actions during and after the horrific incident question just how apologetic she really was.
She brazenly lied to officers at the scene for ‘over an hour’ that she was not the driver, blaming it instead on a friend called ‘Jay’ from Sheffield who had ‘ran off’ through a field.
Police were led on a wild goose chase as they wasted resources trying to catch a fictitious driver, with the National Air Service deployed in a bid to find them.
When asked to take a roadside breath test, she replied: ‘I’ve had a drink. I’m not p*ssed. I’m not the driver.’
After finally admitting to driving, Allarakhia then laughed to officers when she passed her roadside breath test, despite having drunk earlier in the day and having ‘sipped’ alcohol at the wheel.
She then went on to pout in her police mugshot after taking two lives.
The court heard at the time of the fatal crash, on June 20, 2024, she was serving a suspended sentence for theft, and had been warned on several occasions prior about her speeding.
Just a month earlier, she was prosecuted for speeding in a 40mph zone.
She was even caught speeding again while on bail after the fatal crash.
But during sentencing at Lincoln Crown Court, Judge James House KC said she had ‘demonstrated genuine remorse’ in a letter she had written, ‘not because of her own predicament but because as a mother herself she has contemplated the horror of the harm she has caused’.
She had cried ‘I’m so sorry’ in the dock with her head bent forward as the families of William and Eddie read out their victim impact statements.
However, when the Daily Mail visited Allarakhia’s address on Turner Crescent, Postwick, neighbours told of how she did not come across remorseful ‘at all’ in the months that followed, and branded the woman as ‘nothing but trouble’.
The mother-of-two, originally from Benfleet, Essex, had been living with her two children on a newbuild development in the quiet parish of Postwick, just outside Norwich. It is understood to have been social housing.
One neighbour told the Daily Mail: ‘She wasn’t a great person.
‘She was a very two-way person. So say if you were speaking to me now, she was the type of person to come out and say “hi, how are you doing, you alright?”. Lovely, really nice.
‘But she was nothing but trouble.
‘It would be nothing but kick-offs every weekend.
‘It was like a flick of the switch type thing. When it was bad it was real bad.
‘She was quite open about it [the crash]. She did tell me, obviously not to the full extent, but who would?
‘She literally told me she was in a car accident and had killed two boys.
‘So she weren’t hiding it.’
The neighbour had explained how police would ‘always’ be on their street after rows would break out between Allarakhia and a woman who lived two doors down from her, whom locals believed were seeing each other.
But asked whether she seemed remorseful about the crash when telling him, he paused for a second, then shook his head.
He said: ‘It’s wasn’t like bragging, but basically, in the way that she told me, because of everything that had happened with the woman from two doors down, she was basically saying she would happily do something to her because she knows what’s going to happen to her in the future.
‘And I was sort of talking to her about that and she was like “yeah because I’ve ended two poor boys lives” so she knew she was going to prison type thing.
‘Basically telling me she might as well do something to her because she’s going to prison anyway.
‘It’s surprising.
‘If that were me, I don’t think I’d ever be able to speak about it. I would physically not be able to bring it up.’
It comes as an MP, with the support of the teenagers’ grieving families, has called for a review into the ‘unduly lenient’ sentencing.
In a letter to the Attorney General’s Office, Dr Caroline Johnson, MP for Sleaford and North Hykeham, argued the fact Allarakhia lied at the scene shows her ‘contemptible disregard for the victims, for the criminal process, and for anyone else involved’.
Another neighbour a few doors down from Allarakhia told of how everyone kept away from her, branding her a ‘nightmare’.
He told the Daily Mail: ‘I kept away from her, she was a nightmare.
‘She was a nuisance if I’m honest, like unreal, horrible, loud, foul-mouthed.
‘It didn’t surprise me when I heard.
‘I mean obviously when we heard about it, we were shocked, and it’s terrible what happened to those boys, but even in knowing she’d done it, she was here for a good couple of months before she was put down, and you could tell she wasn’t bothered by it.
‘She didn’t seem remorseful at all. Not at all.
‘Just horrible.’
He told of how she could be heard shouting from her garden, and ‘you could tell alcohol was definitely involved’, and would set off bonfires and play music late at night.
‘There was always police out here, always. All the time. Horrendous. There’d be four or five police cars out here,’ he added.
Another woman, who lived opposite the address, told of how one neighbour had even installed a CCTV camera because of the ‘commotion’ caused by Allarakhia and her neighbour.
She said: ‘My neighbour put a camera up because of all the commotion that was going on between them two.
‘They were just arguing all the time, out on the street.
‘I think they were together, because that sounded like a domestic rather than a neighbourly feud.
‘There were police out there, you would get police come by saying ‘we heard there was a commotion last night’.
On the tragic evening of the crash, William and three friends had been out to watch an England football match at the pub.
He had not had any alcohol to drink, and the others did not ‘have a great deal’, the court heard.
The group had been friends for many years, ‘through school and football teams’, and were looking forward to their summer after completing their A-Levels.
The judge said in his sentencing remarks: ‘They would never learn their results, but both achieved what they had worked so hard for and both would have headed for university last September.’
In her victim impact statement, Eddie’s mother Kerri Foster said Allarakhia’s ‘selfish actions’ had robbed her of her son as she told of how she is ‘serving a life sentence of grief’.
Allarakhia’s partner, who was a passenger, was also injured in the crash, suffering a linear undisplaced fracture of her vertabra.
Her two children were also in the car, one of whom was not wearing a seatbelt – something which is the driver’s responsibility to ensure.
Whilst not over the prescribed limit for drink driving, the court heard how Allarakhia had been taking sips from a can of alcohol during the journey whilst driving.
The court heard Allarakhia has five previous convictions for 12 offences, including a bad driving record. Two weeks after the fatal crash, she failed to provide driver details when required by the police.
David Eager, prosecuting, told the court: ‘Not only was she driving at 96mph but she was not paying attention all the time.
‘During part of the journey she was drinking from a can of alcohol, literally drinking and driving.’
Examination of the Audi’s air bag control module identified that it was travelling in excess of 90 mph just moments prior to the collision; the speed limit for this section of the A17 being 60mph.
Further data revealed that braking only started less than two seconds prior to the collision occurring.
When asked to take a roadside breath test and replied: ‘I’ve had a drink. I’m not p*ssed. I’m not the driver.’
The court heard Allarakhia was within the legal limit.
‘At that point she laughs, again in the presence of her children,’ Mr Eager added.
Mr Eager said Allarakhia maintained the lie that she wasn’t the driver for one hour and 12 minutes.
Mr Eager said: ‘During that time two boys were being extracted from the vehicle, and the other two men were effectively dying,’ Mr Eager stressed.
Allarakhia had driven to Sheffield to pick up her partner Kim and had taken a couple of sips from her can during the return journey. She also said Allarakhia had been drinking earlier in the day.
All four passengers were taken to the Queens Medical Centre in Nottingham where Mr Ray and Mr Shore were later declared dead from their head injuries.
Allarakhia, of Turner Crescent, Norwich pleaded guilty to causing the deaths of Mr Ray on 21 June and Mr Shore on 22 June by dangerous driving. She also admitted a third charge of causing serious injury to passenger, Jack Prince, on 20 June.
The results meant Eddie would have been able to take up a place at university in Leeds.
‘Now we will never know what that future had for Eddie,’ Mrs Foster explained.
Eddie’s father, James Shore, described the two days he spent holding his hand in hospital before he died.
‘It has broken me and I will never be the same the person again,’ Mr Shore said, before insisting that he would keep going to help Eddie’s sister and preserve the memory of his son.
Mr Ray’s mother, Sarah Barker, described how she was working away in Glasgow when she learnt of the tragedy.
‘Our lives after 9.41pm on that evening will never be the same again. My Will, my only boy, the love of my life,’ Mrs Barker said.
Mrs Barker explained how she still visited her son’s grave every day and drew strength from the support of the other impacted families and his friends.
Mr Ray’s father, Steven, described his son as the ‘best of us’ and noted how he had genuinely never heard a bad word said about him. Mr Ray revealed how he also still cried in his sleep.
In his statement Mr Prince told Allarakhia he had been left with life changing injuries and described the mental harm as ‘unspeakable.’
Mr Prince said he was still haunted by the collision and explained that the fractures he suffered had derailed his chosen career in the RAF.
The third passenger in Mr Ray’s Fiesta, Luke Wood, described how the deaths of Will and Eddie had left him with a lifetime of ‘grief and trauma.’
Following the collision, Allarakhia was arrested and gave a prepared statement in which she claimed to have suffered a momentary lack of inattention.
Edward Renvoize, defending Allarakhia, said she had shown genuine remorse which was emphasised by her demeanor in court.
‘She did not set out to hurt anyone,’ Mr Renvoize told the court.
Mr Renvoize added: ‘It was a stupid lie told at the roadside which was voluntarily desisted from.’
The court heard Allarakhia was also the primary carer for her two children.
‘She is unlikely to see them again until they reach adulthood.’
In January 2023 she was handed a 20-week suspended jail sentence for contravening a pedestrian crossing and driving without due care and attention after hitting a taxi when she drove through a red light on a pedestrian crossing.
The court heard Allarakhia was also banned from driving earlier this year under the totting up procedure for two incidents of speeding.
Those offences occurred on 13 June and 5 July, 2024, therefore shortly before and after the fatal collision.
Before passing sentence Judge James House KC addressed a packed public gallery and stated: ‘I am very conscious what brings us here today is a devastating tragedy.’
The Judge noted it was impossible not to be moved by all of the victim impact statements which highlighted ‘what they will now miss out on together.’
Addressing Allarakhia, Judge House said while alcohol could not be proved to be a factor in the crash her previous convictions were an aggravating factor.
‘This is a woman who has had a number of warnings to slow down,’ Judge House noted.
‘This defendant was not just driving significantly in excess of the limit but was not paying attention for a significant period of time.’
Allarakhia was also made the subject of a twelve and half year driving ban and must take an extended retest before she can ever drive again.
Detective Sergeant Kate Johnston, from Lincolnshire police said: ‘This collision is solely down to the reckless, selfish and dangerous actions of Allarakhia.
‘Because of her utter disregard for the safety of others, two teenagers, with their lives ahead of them, were cruelly taken from this world. The other two occupants of the Fiesta are left with both the physical and mental impacts of that night.
‘Allarakhia deserves no sympathy in this case – her immediate reaction was to concoct a false story and deny all responsibility until challenged demonstrating a contemptible disregard for anyone else involved.
‘Her failure to observe even the most basic rules of the road have destroyed lives, put her own children at risk and rightly attracted a substantial sentence from the court.’