A COMPANY director who killed a biker by blocking the road with his Jaguar XJ8 as he tried to carry out a three-point turn has been banned from driving and ordered to carry out community work.
William Scott's car was so long that motorcyclist David Roberts had no way of avoiding it as he came round a bend and the impact left him fatally injured.
Scott, 73, was not sent to prison after a court was told he had driven more than one million miles without incident in almost half a century of motoring.
Perth Sheriff Court was also told that residents had put a mirror up to help drivers at the junction - but it had been covered with a sheet and then removed by Perth and Kinross Council which refused to give it planning permission.
Scott's manoeuvre was carried out after he consulted his sat-nav system and was informed he would have to turn back to reach his destination.
Mr Roberts, 41, from Stanley, Perthshire, was returning from a business meeting on his Ducati motorbike.
The father-of-three was treated by paramedics but pronounced dead at the scene as a result of the impact. The court heard he had been driving normally at the time of the crash.
Scott, of Overtown, Wishaw, admitted that on August 22, 2012 at the A85 between St Fillans and Comrie he caused the death of David Roberts by driving carelessly.
Solicitor Richard Freeman, defending, said the trauma of the crash and its consequences had forced Scott to shut down his cladding business.
Sheriff Fiona Tait banned Scott from driving for 30 months. She also ordered him to carry out 300 hours unpaid work in the community.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article