The Government has rejected the Justice for Jeff Campaign's call for longer sentences for motorists guilty of causing death by dangerous driving.

A consultation paper on road traffic penalties, published yesterday, said an increase in the maximum penalty would be an empty gesture.

The decision has angered campaigners who were calling for tougher penalties following the death of PC Jeff Tooley in a hit-and-run accident while he was on duty in Brighton Road, Shoreham, in April last year.

PC Tooley's mother Veronica called the decision shameful and said: "It's very disappointing. I would have been happy with an extra five years on the maximum sentence."

She said it was especially upsetting as her hopes had been raised by Home Office Minister Charles Clarke during a meeting in February.

At the time, Mr Clarke had said he hoped the law could be changed to give judges greater powers to punish motorists convicted of death by dangerous driving.

Instead, the Government proposes keeping the current ten-year maximum jail sentence for the offence.

Ministers had considered increasing it to 14 years, but they concluded this would serve little purpose since the courts rarely sentenced people to more than seven years for the offence.

The Home Office does not believe public opinion and the courts would "equate" causing death by dangerous driving to other serious offences "typically committed by professional criminals who in effect set out to live outside the law."

The Government's Road Traffic Penalties consultation paper says: "It would be an empty gesture to raise a maximum penalty when the present maximum is clearly not preventing the courts from sentencing at a level they regard as right for the cases that come before them."

Mrs Tooley said she would continue to campaign for longer maximum sentences for those convicted of death by dangerous driving. She would like to see people charged with manslaughter instead.

She said: "Has Mr Clarke forgotten us? I am very shocked and stunned by his asking us to write to him. What more do we have to say? Justice is not being done.

"People who are driving dangerously and kill someone are the same as those who kill someone in a heated argument. They don't mean to kill anyone, it wasn't premeditated but it happened."