A hit-and-run driver who left a cyclist with a broken cyclist when he hit him from behind has been handed a community order by magistrates.

James McIntyre, aged 24 and a bricklayer by trade, also escaped a driving ban after pleading guilty to driving without due care and attention and failing to stop following the incident in Belper on 19 May this year, reports Staffordshire Live.

Sentenced at South Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court, he was given a 12-month community order under which he will have to undertake 60 hours of unpaid work, fined an unreported amount, and had his driving licence endorsed with 10 penalty points.

McIntyre, from Overseal, was driving his Ford Transit van when he hit the cyclist, who in a statement read out in court recalled how he was thrown in the air when the van struck him from behind, his head hitting the ground as he landed and the impact fracturing his pelvis.

The motorist failed to stop at the scene, and passers-by looked after the cyclist, who also sustained a grazed knee and sprained wrist, before paramedics arrived and he was taken to hospital.

The victim said that since the crash he cannot accompany his children to school, and the collision has led to anxiety over getting back on his bike.

In mitigation, the court was told that McIntyre had a clean driving licence and believed he had clipped another vehicle, although he agreed that even if that had been the case he should have stopped at the scene.

Sentencing McIntyre, magistrates expressed concern regarding the extent of the victim’s injuries, but accepted the grounds for mitigation, including a testimonial from his employer as to his character, in not imposing a custodial sentence.