AN MP is calling for law changes after a disqualified driver involved in an accident which killed a young girl was jailed for just four months.

Amy Houston, 12, had to be freed by firefighters from underneath a car after running into the road near her home in Ravenglass Close, Blackburn, at around 4.30pm on Monday November 24.

Blackburn magistrates heard that 25-year-old Kurdish Iraqi asylum seeker Aso Mohammed Ibrahim ran off leaving the girl trapped under his black Rover.

Because he did not admit dangerous driving and there was no evidence to support such a charge, he was prosecuted for lesser offences.

Despite being disqualified twice and already being on bail for offences of driving while banned, the maximum sentence available to magistrates was six months in prison which they reduced to four because of his early guilty plea.

Now Hyndburn MP Greg Pope has called for a new offence with tougher penalties to be introduced so people involved in similar accidents can be properly punished.

After the case, Amy's outraged father Paul Houston said the system had failed the family's "precious little girl" and said the four-month sentence was too low.

Amy lived with her mother Joanne Cocker but Mr Houston, of Russia Street, Accrington, told how her death had left a void in her family's life that they would never be able to fill.

Ibrahim, of St James Road, Blackburn, pleaded guilty to driving while disqualified and without insurance and failing to stop after an accident.

The court was told that Ibrahim had exhausted all appeal options during his two-and-a-half years in the United Kingdom but had not been returned to his home country because of the volatile situation that still exists there.

Hyndburn MP Greg Pope has sent out his condolences to her father, who is his constituent, her mother Joanne Cocker and her family and friends.

And he said that the punishment imposed was inadequate.

Mr Pope said: "I think this is a very low sentence indeed. Its totally inadequate for what was a horrific and tragic event. The driver should have received a much heavier sentence. The law is clearly failing.

"There is clearly a loophole here.

"I think the government should look at an offence similar causing death by dangerous driving covering people who drive while disqualified and without documents. This should have heavy penalties.

"People who kill while driving when they have no legal right to be behind the wheel deserve to be severely punished."