A university worker who killed a father-of-five in a horrific A9 road crash has lost a controversial bid to have her sentence reduced.
Mona Rahman admitted causing the death of grandfather Mervyn Taylor, 56, when she drove into his motorbike as he rode home from a family christening.
The accident happened near Blair Atholl on April 21 last year.
Rahman appeared at Perth Sheriff Court in July and pleaded guilty to a charge of dangerous driving. She was ordered to carry out 250 hours of unpaid work and banned from driving for three years.
On Tuesday, the 60-year-old went to the Court of Criminal Appeals in Edinburgh in an effort to have her sentence slashed. But judges refused her appeal and ordered her to complete her community service. She will also need to sit an extended driving test to get her licence back.
Mr Taylor’s family said they had been angered by Rahman’s appeal bid.
Son Vincent said: “For her to stand up in court and say sorry and show remorse, only to drag the family back through this again, we are completely gobsmacked.
“It feels like she put on this facade in court in order to get a more lenient sentence.”
He added: “She got community service and a driving ban we’ve lost a member of our family who we loved dearly.
“For her to appeal against that sentence is unbelievable.”
The court had heard that Rahman, of Greendyke Street, Glasgow, did not see Mr Taylor’s Yamaha motorcycle pulling out of a line of traffic during a lapse that lasted less than a second.
Mr Taylor had tried desperately to avoid a head-on collision with Rahman’s Jeep Compass, a move that Sheriff Lindsay Foulis said showed “skill and courage”.
Mr Taylor, a carpenter from Norfolk, was returning home from the christening of a family friend in the north of Scotland when he was killed.
He had travelled separately from his family because he was a keen biker and wanted to use his motorcycle.
Rahman had been driving when she decided to pull in to the House of Bruar shopping complex. It was when she tried to rejoin the northbound A9 that she drove into the path of Mr Taylor’s bike.
Mr Taylor’s family had travelled to Scotland for Rahman’s sentencing. At the time they said although they would have liked her to receive a tougher penalty, they accepted the sentence and were looking to move on with their lives.
Mr Taylor’s daughter, Jo Green, said: “Nothing’s going to change the fact that we’ve lost dad but this case has already taken months and this (appeal) only adds to our heartache.”