The Crown has lost an appeal against the “unduly lenient” sentence on a motorist convicted of killing two cyclists in separate incidents.
Gary McCourt was found guilty in April of causing the death of Audrey Fyfe by driving carelessly.
The 75-year-old died two days after McCourt clipped the back wheel of her bike in Edinburgh in August 2011.
McCourt, 49, was banned from driving for five years and ordered to carry out 300 hours of community service by Sheriff James Scott.
At the end of his trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court, it emerged he was jailed for two years after being convicted in 1986 of causing another cyclist’s death by reckless driving.
George Dalgity, 22, was killed as he cycled along Edinburgh’s Regent Road on October 18 1985.
Mrs Fyfe’s family and cycling charity CTC criticised Sheriff Scott’s sentence and prosecutors lodged an appeal on the grounds that it was not tough enough.
But at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh today, Lord Menzies, sitting with Lady Smith and Lord Bracadale, refused the appeal.
At an appeal hearing last month, Solicitor General Lesley Thomson argued McCourt should be sentenced to at least eight months’ imprisonment and banned from driving for life.
The trial sheriff had erred in applying the sentencing guidelines, resulting in an unduly lenient sentence, she said.
He had been wrong to reach the conclusion that the accident had been the result of “momentary inattention” on the part of McCourt, the court was told.
The sheriff was wrong to take into account the fact that Mrs Fyfe was not wearing a cycle helmet, Ms Thomson said.
No evidence had been led about the effectiveness of wearing a helmet and the sheriff had “entirely formed his own view” on the matter.
Insufficient weight had also been placed on McCourt’s previous conviction for killing another cyclist, she argued.
But defence advocate Herbert Kerrigan QC said the sheriff had used his common sense and the sentence could not be criticised.
McCourt had been travelling at a slow speed and had clipped the back of Mrs Fyfe’s wheel, after which she toppled over, Mr Kerrigan said.
“The fact of the matter is she chose not to wear a safety helmet, which she was perfectly entitled to do,” he said.
“The sheriff has quite clearly weighed matters up with great care and concern.”