A VAN driver who caused the death of a motorcyclist on a Worcestershire road has been banned from driving for 18 months and fined £500.

Jonathan Gwyne app-eared at Worcester Crown Court where he admitted a charge of careless driving that led to the death of 38-year-old father-of-three Dean Harrison.

Mr Harrison, from Kidderminster, was a former pupil of Stourport High School and keen member of Wyre Forest Cycle Racing Club.

Gwyne had been due to stand trial for causing death by dangerous driving, but the Crown Prosecution Service accepted his not guilty plea and admission on the lesser charge.

Paul Whitfield, prosecuting, told how Gwyne, aged 44, was pulling out of a junction to turn right onto the A450 between Mustow Green and Black Bridge, near Kidderminster, when the Yamaha 1000 driven by Dean Harrison hit his van.

Mr Whitfield said: “There were no eye witnesses.

“Paramedics who attended pronounced the victim dead at the scene and the pathologist gave the cause of death as multiple injuries.”

He said that the junction is staggered and when arrested by police Gwyne, of Cheddar Road, Balsall Heath, Birmingham, said: “I didn’t even see the bike. I just heard the bang.”

Mr Whitfield said that at the time of the crash on July 26 last year, Gwyne had already narrowly avoided being banned from driving having totted up 13 points for speeding offences.

But he kept his licence after pleading mitigating circumstances, as he needed to drive for his livelihood.

Mr Whitfield said despite investigations it was impossible to say what speed Mr Harrison had been riding at.

Jason Taylor, defending, said hearing the statement of Mr Harrison’s widow had been especially difficult for Gwyne.

He said: “Following the accident he has had to attend a counsellor to help him cope. He struggles to live with this on a daily basis.”

Mr Taylor said Gwyne did 70,000 miles a year as a salesman for a fish company and would now lose his job as part of the consequences of the accident.