Chase deaths driver appeals

A father of five jailed for 11 years for killing a taxi driver and his passenger while he was high on drugs, driving a stolen car and fleeing police will appeal against his sentence.

Antony Edwards Fogarty, 24, sped through red lights at up to 170km/h as he tried to evade police for almost 30 minutes in October 2012.

At an intersection in Kewdale, Fogarty crashed into Kuldeep Singh's taxi, killing the father-to-be and his passenger Sean Barrett, who had arrived in WA just an hour earlier.

Fogarty, who the court was told had a history of drug use and convictions and displayed "persistent irresponsibility", was jailed for a minimum nine years for the manslaughter of both men, for never holding a driving licence and after blood tests showed he had amphetamines and cannabis in his system at the time of the crash.

But his lawyers have served notice of their intention to appeal against the sentence in the Supreme Court.

They claimed the sentence was too high when compared with Fogarty's criminality, described by a prosecutor as among WA's worst cases of vehicular manslaughter.

Dr Barrett, 36, a renowned quantum physicist from Britain, was in Perth for a conference and was being driven to the city from the airport by Mr Singh when the taxi was T-boned by Fogarty.

A police helicopter was following him. Police on the ground had called off their chase because they feared for public safety as Fogarty crossed to the wrong side of the road and sped past a booze bus at almost 130km/h.

Mr Singh, 28, was obeying a green arrow when his taxi was hit and burst into flames.

His first child, a daughter, was born just weeks after the crash.

Fogarty first declined to speak to police about the crash, but was recorded during prison phone calls telling his family he was the driver.