A court has heard driver who killed an 83-year-old cyclist went back to the crash scene and feigned being an innocent bystander, reports the Liverpool Echo.

Stephen Shaw, aged 51, was caught because a witness had written down his Vauxhall Corsa’s registration number, at the scene of the crash in Newton-le-Willows, Merseyside, which was also caught on CCTV.

John Dykes, who was riding an electrically assisted bike, died from injuries sustained when Shaw struck him as the pair pulled away from traffic lights on the afternoon of 9 February last year.

Shaw was charged with causing his death by careless driving and change his plea to guilty as his trial was due to begin at Liverpool Crown Court yesterday. He had already pleaded guilty to charges of failing to stop and failing to report the incident.

Prosecutor Ian Whitehouse told the court: “The defendant pulled away at the same time as Mr Dykes but the prosecution say the defendant failed to afford priority and sufficient time and space to the victim and thus prevented him from manoeuvring, positioning and indicating his intentions to other road users.

“Both vehicles as a result came together and the collision took place in the centre of the road. Mr Dykes fell to the floor and smashed his head with some force. He was not wearing a cycle helmet and he received a severe head injury.

“He lost consciousness and unfortunately never regained it. He died on February 16 and the cause of death was severe blunt force head trauma.”

Shaw failed to stop at the scene and returned later on foot, but left before the arrival of the emergency services.

When police visited his house around two hours after the collision he told officers he had spent the entire day at home, only admitting he had been the driver of the vehicle involved when they told him there was CCTV footage.

At a subsequent interview, he said that seeing Mr Dykes in the road and the visit of the officers to his hone had caused him to panic.

Judge Clement Goldstone, QC sentenced Shaw to 24 weeks’ imprisonment suspended for 18 months.

He told Shaw that Mr Sykes “was passionate about cycling and while indulging his passion, albeit with a little electrical assistance to which he was well entitled at his age, he met his death.

“It was caused by your carelessness in the way in which you drove your car when you had both been waiting for the lights to change.

“Quite simply, being aware of him and having seen him, you failed to give him a sufficiently wide berth when he turned effectively across your path from the cycling box.”

He said that in going back to the scene, Shaw acted “as if you were a complete bystander.”

Besides the suspended sentence, Shaw was also told to undergo 20 days of rehabilitation activities and pay £500 costs within six months, as well as being placed under curfew for 12 weeks.

The judge told him: “That is meant to infringe your liberty and it is to remind you, if reminder is needed, how close you came to a sentence which would have resulted in you going to prison immediately.”

The victim’s daughter, Sandra Woods, said her father had been cycling for 70 years.

“He was a loving husband, father-in-law, grandfather and great-grandfather,” she said.

“His sudden and unexpected loss has impacted on generations of the family. He was known for being kind-hearted and generous.”

Cycling UK reaction

Duncan Dollimore, senior road safety and legal campaigner at the charity Cycling UK, told road.cc: “The driver’s careless driving in this case was compounded by his failure to stop and then report the collision, offences for which he was also convicted.

“All too often leaving the scene, particularly when someone has been seriously injured, does not appear to be treated as an aggravating factor in sentencing.

“Cases like this, where drivers seek to avoid the consequences of their own actions, flee the scene and deny involvement, were exactly what Cycling UK had in mind earlier this year when responding to the Government’s consultation on motoring offences and penalties.

“We asked the Government to consider increasing the penalties for those drivers who fail to stop leaving someone in need of urgent medical attention. Such drivers need to realise that there are real and substantial penalties when they make that choice, and that the calculated risk to simply carry on driving is not worth taking.”

Neither the Liverpool Echo’s report nor one in the St Helen’s Star mentions a driving ban, and Dollimore added: “The reluctance of the courts to disqualify drivers, with driving treated as a right rather than a privilege, is another issue Cycling UK  asked the Government to review.

“We still await their response, which is now delayed until after the election, but this case is tragically  just the most recent in a long list of cases which demonstrate why a holistic review of how the justice system deals with bad driving is sorely needed.”