Drunk driver who knocked cyclist off bike in hit and run caught after witness followed him home

71 yr old with a big drink problem - will probably be dead before his ban finishes

that's what makes driving bans so pathetic, maybe  the first step when caught driving without a licence should be vehicle seizure? Prison? 

What at can a society do to protect itself from such anarchy?

Yep, 71 year olds are well known for changing habits. Looking forward to seeing this changed man in 4 years time.

A four year ban is simply not long enough.

"Speaking in mitigation, Matthew Wallace told the court that his client recognised he had a drinking problem and plans to seek help for it."

how is this mitigation?  He should have his license removed until he has sought help for his drink problem.  recognising that you need help and actually seeking it are not the same thing.

to  be fair - don't know if the cyclist would go to court. The witness is reported as hearing not seeing so unlikely there is enough evidence for more.

Plus the sentence would only be concurrent so make no difference in punishment terms.

Interesting use of the term vigilante - the member of the public reporting a crime is simple good citizenship. Vigilante is for example when you smash out someones lights because they did a hit and run on you - being your own police force and normally also meteing out the jsutice.

Would  not condone scaring a poor old man that his actions might end up with worse retribution in the future.

and the really galling thing here is that the punishment is only for being over the limit... not for colliding with the bicycle rider or for failing to stop...

71 years old and doesn't know any better....god help this country

It is a 48 month driving ban.

I would prefer people found guilty  of this type of incident to get a minimum of 2 years in prison.  

The costs and vicitim charges should be a lot steeper too.

Every one of us driving would think twice about speeding/ carelessness etc if the standard tariff for a 3 point offence was  £1,000.  Oh and £10,000 for mobile phones - either we'd be able to fund a lot more police or we'd all be safer.

4 years.

I think the road.cc proofreaders have fallen victim to the recent cuts. I blame the Tories.

Quote:

Salt pleaded guilty to drink-driving and was banned from driving for four months as well as being handed a three-month curfew from 7am to 7pm and being told to pay a £115 victim surcharge.

I'm not normally one to wail about lenient sentencing, but this is a absolute joke...

4 Months.

4. Months.

This countries officially gone to shit.

Simon wrote:

Salt pleaded guilty to drink-driving and was banned from driving for four months as well as being handed a three-month curfew from 7am to 7pm and being told to pay a £115 victim surcharge.

MEN wrote:

Magistrates banned him from driving for 48 months and he was given a curfew from 7pm until 7am for three months.

Is it too much to ask that they're both right?

Note how the renowned anti-cyclist paper MEN refers to someone who had the gall to help a cyclist, 'Vigilante'.

Even people who provide some form of assistance to cyclists are being demonised by the media now.

Er, the limit is 0.35mg/ml of breath, not 0.12mg/ml.

Most shocking is that the driver clearly has no understanding of how the law works in instances like these. Had he stopped and reversed back over the rider until they were dead, the judge would have been able to apply the 'killed a cyclist' tariff and reduce his sentence to a 10-minute ban and a 30p fine.