Driver ‘on drink and drugs when he killed dog walker’ in Chelsea

A sports car driver accused of killing a woman as she walked her dogs along Chelsea embankment was drunk and on drugs at the time of the crash, it is alleged.

Laszlo Dancs, 27, has been charged with causing the death by dangerous driving of 41-year-old Olivia Riley at around 6.20am on May 14 last year. Ms Riley, the stepdaughter of best-selling author Lucinda Riley, died at the scene, close to Cheyne Walk.

Her family’s two yellow labradors and a golden retriever also died in the crash on a Saturday morning.

Dancs, from Ealing, faces allegations of causing death by dangerous driving, driving while on drugs and driving with excess alcohol in his system. It is said he had 128mg of benzoylecgonine in his system and he is also accused of having 137 milligrams of alcohol in a sample of blood, above the legal limit of 80 milligrams.

Dancs, who is said to have been driving an Audi TT, is also accused of failing to co-operate with a breath test at the roadside following the collision. He appeared at Westminster magistrates’ court to face the charges for the first time on April 5.

No pleas were entered as he was sent for trial at Southwark crown court on the death by dangerous driving charge.

In the wake of her death, Ms Riley’s uncle Mark Riley paid tribute to a “beautiful, fun-loving” woman who “just lit up the room for everybody”.

He revealed she had been mourning the loss of her stepmother, for whom she worked as a literary assistant, following her death last year from cancer.

Mr Riley said: “Olivia was one in a million and nobody can come to terms with this tragedy, this loss. She saw the best in everyone.”

Dancs was released on bail until the next hearing at Southwark crown court on May 3.