A MOTORIST who fatally injured a cyclist during the victim's early morning commute has been given a community payback order.

Alastair Dudgeon was killed near the Kincardine Bridge, in Fife, at about 2am on January 6 last year following a collision with a Vauxhall Astra driven by James Sneddon.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard that Mr Dudgeon, 51, of High Valleyfield, in Fife, regularly cycled to his work as a baker at a Tesco store, at Camelon, on the outskirts of Falkirk, in Stirlingshire.

First offender Sneddon, 42, of Morar Drive, Falkirk, phoned an ambulance after his car hit the mountain bike of Mr Dudgeon.

Paramedics who attended at the scene found no sign of a pulse on the victim who was taken to the Forth Valley Hospital at Larbert.

Mr Dudgeon was found to have suffered a broken neck, rib fractures and internal injuries, including to the aorta.

The Crown charged Sneddon with causing the death of Mr Dudgeon on the A985 road in Fife between Longannet roundabout and the Kincardine Bridge by driving dangerously and colliding with the cyclist.

Sneddon had denied the charge and he was earlier found guilty by a jury of the lesser offence of causing death by careless driving after a trial

That offence carries a maximum penalty of five years' imprisonment.

Judge Nigel Morrison QC ordered Sneddon should carry out 300 hours unpaid work under a community payback order.

The judge said: "The death of Alastair Dudgeon at 51 is a tragedy for his family."