DRIVERS who kill are more likely to be punished with community service or fines as low as £1000 than a prison sentence according to figures which also reveal that hundreds more charges of careless and dangerous driving are dropped before they ever reach court.

Statistics obtained by the Herald under freedom of information reveal that only one out of 11 motorists who were charged and subsequently convicted of causing death by careless driving - for example, using a mobile phone at the wheel - was jailed in Scotland last year. The sentence was six months.

Case study: 'We thought "why isn’t he spending a lot longer in jail?"'

Of the remaining 10 drivers, three were fined - receiving penalties of £1000, £4,500 and £5000 - while the other seven were handed community payback orders of 200 to 300 hours. All those convicted were banned from driving, but one killer motorist was disqualified for just a year.

A total of 25 drivers were charged with causing death by careless driving during 2015/16, and the Crown Office stressed that a number of prosecutions would still be ongoing. However, complete figures for the previous year, 2014/15, show that there were 29 guilty pleas or verdicts from a total of 43 prosecutions, with only four convictions resulted in a custodial sentence. The vast majority of drivers - 24 - were punished with community service while one was handed a fine.

Meanwhile, legal and road safety experts criticised the "lenient" sentences meted out to drivers who kill while inebriated, speeding or behaving recklessly. To date, four motorists charged with causing death by dangerous driving in 2015/16 have been convicted and all were sent to prison - but most for less than four years. The sentences were: 20 months; two years; three years nine months; and nine and a half years. Most will be released halfway through their term.

Zari’aat Masood, spokesman for road safety charity Brake, said: “Lenient sentences are an insult to bereaved families; deaths and serious injuries on our roads cause terrible suffering every day. As a charity, we provide support to victims of road crashes, and we hear far too often that bereaved and injured victims feel let down by the justice system.

"‘Careless’ driving sentences are a particular concern – some of the strongest feedback we have received from the families we work with is that there is nothing careless about taking someone else’s life."

There also evidence that many non-fatal motoring offence cases are dropped by prosecutors before they even reach court. Of the 6,023 charges of careless driving reported to the Crown Office last year, no action was taken in 917 cases - equivalent to 15 per cent. For dangerous driving charges, 79 out of 2,593 were scrapped before court - three per hundred.

It comes weeks after the Ministry of Justice launched a consultation on tougher penalties for traffic crimes, which could include increasing the maximum sentence for causing death by dangerous driving - or careless driving whilst under the influence of drink and drugs - from 14 years to life.

Although Scotland has its own legal system and the Scottish Parliament can pass some motoring legislation - for example lowering the drink drive limit - setting driving laws and penalties is reserved to Westminster.

Glen Millar, a partner at Thompson Solicitors in Edinburgh who has handled hundreds of damages claims for bereaved relatives said the shake-up was overdue.

He said: "Most families find it very hard to distinguish between these driving cases and a murder, and if you are recklessly driving about in an x-tonne piece of tin you can see why they make that connection. The act is equivalent to a murder but the sentencing falls well short."

Mr Millar said he had also been left baffled after acting on behalf of the family of a German holidaymaker killed in Scotland by a solicitor advocate driving the wrong way on the A9.

Following the trial in February, Andrew Houston, whose own wife and daughter also died in the incident, was convicted of careless driving, but not causing death by careless driving. 

"Trying to explain that sort of legal high-wire act to this German family was just horrific," said Mr Millar. "From their point of view, they regarded the whole proceedings and the outcome as being like suffering the death all over again. As a lawyer, I personally don't understand it."

However, Neil Greig, Scotland-based policy director for the Institute of Advanced Motorists, said there was "no clear evidence that ever tougher sentences have any effect on the momentary lapses and errors that cause most crashes".

He added: "Even if a conviction is secured the sentences are clearly inconsistent and variable which upsets victims’ families even more. Simply increasing the penalty to life in prison will not solve the problem as the existing maximums are rarely applied.”

A spokesman for the Crown Office said: “The Crown can only take action in cases reported to us where there is sufficient evidence in law to allow us to do so. We give careful consideration to each case reported to us, and where there is sufficient evidence we will consider what action it is appropriate for us to take in the public interest."

He added: “Sentencing is a matter for the Court.”