The mother of a young woman killed in a car crash has been left "speechless" after the man behind the wheel was told he could serve his prison sentence from home.
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Matthew Luke Agius was sentenced to one year and 10 months imprisonment to be served in the community through an intensive correction order after being found guilty of dangerous driving occasioning death.
Mr Agius will have to serve the first 18 months of the order as home detention. He was also ordered to undergo rehabilitation.
Casey Mallia was just 19 years old when the car she was travelling in, driven by Mr Agius who was her boyfriend at the time, crashed on the Sturt Highway at Galore, west of Wagga, on December 22, 2018.
Mr Agius faced Penrith District Court on Thursday where Judge Ian Bourke handed down the sentence, which left Miss Mallia's mother Kirsty Greenfield feeling like she had "been kicked in the guts".
"He's basically been told he gets a holiday, he gets to be at home with his mother," she said.
"I can't fathom how you can take a life and not go to jail for it."
Mr Agius was speeding along a two-lane, multi-directional stretch of road at 120km/h when he decided to overtake a vehicle travelling at the 100km/h speed limit.
As a result, the car lost control and flipped, leaving Casey unconscious and suffering from massive head trauma, shattered teeth and internal damage to multiple organs. She suffered a heart attack when being pulled from the vehicle and died in hospital the following day, December 23, due to a lack of blood to her brain.
Mrs Greenfield said she'd tried to prepare herself for the verdict, but when it came, she was lost for words.
"It's an insult to Casey, to her family and her friends," she said.
The court heard Mr Agius sustained brain damage in the crash, influencing the decision for him to serve his sentence at home.
But Mrs Greenfield said the result was "unfair".
"He gets to walk, he gets to have a future, he gets to have kids, while my daughter isn't breathing, she's not here because of him," she said.
The grieving mother said she felt there was a lack of value in deterrence when sentencing Mr Agius.
"They kept saying how important it is to stop others from doing it and to learn from other's mistakes, but how is letting him serve in the comfort of his own home going to deter anyone?" Mrs Greenfield said.