A PEEBLES man who killed his partner in a crash on the A72 has been jailed.

Sam Barber lost control of his BMW while travelling at 103mph on a 60mph stretch of the road in March 2022.

Twenty-year-old Beth Damer, who was a passenger in the car, died after suffering pelvic injuries in the crash.

Barber was sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow after previously pleading guilty to causing death by dangerous driving.

The 28-year-old – who already had one speeding conviction and three for careless driving – was also banned from the road for 12-and-a-half years.

Lord Arthurson described Ms Damer, an NHS clinical support worker who was about to turn 21, as a “much-loved daughter and sister”.

“She filled her family home with joy and music,” said Lord Arthurson.

“The eloquent family impact statements which I have read make it plain just how much she will be missed by those who loved her, in particular her parents and two brothers.

“Ms Damer will forever be in their memories a young woman with her whole life ahead of her, a life of potential, promise, fulfilment and achievement.

“In the words so powerfully expressed in one of the impact statements, Beth Damer’s was a beautiful life, cut short.”

The court heard how Barber, driving at a “grossly excessive speed”, crashed into a fence.

The car became airborne before landing on its roof in a field.

Lord Arthurson said Barber would have been jailed for six-and-a-half years if it was not for his guilty plea.

Passing sentence he said: “You will one doubtless day leave prison and rejoin your family and the community.

“Your victim, Ms Damer, will never, due to your criminal behaviour, be able to do any of that.

“I have sought today, as I require to do, to apply the applicable sentencing guidelines for cases of this nature.

“That said, I fully understand that this sentence may nevertheless seem wholly inadequate to observing bereaved family members and friends, but of course nothing that this court can do can undo the crime that you, and you alone, are responsible for and in so doing turn back the clock.

“The sentence imposed today should not in any sense whatsoever be regarded as measurement of the impact of the loss of Ms Damer to her grieving family.

“That impact is quite simply immeasurable.”