Driver who killed motorcyclist received 100 hours unpaid work, £500 costs and 12 month driving ban (3/2010)

A Cockermouth mum has spoken out after the man who killed her son on the A66 was given a community order and banned from driving for 12 months.

Alan William Holmes, 24, admitted causing death by careless driving after his Vauxhall Astra collided with father-of-five Richard Beaty’s Aprilia motorbike near Chapel Brow, Workington, in March last year.

Holmes, of High Brigham, appeared at West Cumbria Magistrates Court this month and had been due to stand trial but he changed his plea to guilty and was sentenced immediately.

He was ordered to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work and pay £500 costs.

Wendy Beattie, Mr Beaty’s mother, said the sentence was a travesty.

She added: “We have waited a long time for the court date. It’s kept us all going, hoping we’d get justice for Richard, and there hasn’t been any justice. In fact, it’s just made his life seem worthless.

“I think we are still numb. Really this is the end of the line now. There’s nothing more we can do.”

Mr Beaty, 43, of Main Street, Cockermouth, had been travelling eastbound at about 4pm on the day of the crash when Holmes, travelling the other way, turned right across his path.

Mr Beaty, a former swimming coach at Cockermouth Leisure Centre, suffered serious injuries and died later in hospital.

The charge of causing death by careless driving, introduced in 2008, bridges the gap between causing death by dangerous driving, which carries stiffer penalties, and careless driving, which does not reflect the loss of life.

Prison is an option, but is not obligatory.

Mrs Beattie, who owns Wendy’s Hair Salon on Main Street, added: “He should have gone to prison. It was his careless driving that killed Richard. He’ll see his little boy grow up. Richard’s children won’t see their dad.

She added that her grandchildren, aged between six and 15, were too young to understand the court process, but she and the rest of the family, including her husband Derek and younger sons Andrew and Steven, had hoped for a custodial sentence.

She said: “I’d like to see changes made to the sentencing if there’s a death. As a minimum sentence, even two years would be fine.”

Mrs Beattie said now the case was over, the family was focusing on supporting her son’s children and ensuring that his memory lived on.

After he died, Mrs Beattie described her son as a “wonderful and caring man” who would be “deeply missed”.

She said: “He was a caring and loving father to his adoring children – his family was his life.

“Motorcycling and being a gym/swimming coach were his passions and tragically he was still recovering from injuries he sustained during an accident five months earlier.

“He loved nothing more than being out on the road or working on his bike.

“He would never go anywhere without his dog Flex and Richard had recently converted to Catholicism and had become an active member of St Joseph’s Church.

“I will miss him dearly, as will all the family.”