Christopher Gard, left, had been convicted for using his phone just six weeks before he killed cyclist Lee Martin (right). He had been allowed continue driving after claiming a ban would cause his family hardship.
A van driver who hit and killed a cyclist as he was texting behind the wheel had eight previous convictions for using his mobile phone while in charge of a vehicle.
Christopher Gard (30) was only on the road after pleading with a judge six weeks before the fatal crash to allow him keep his licence on the promise he would lock his phone in his boot.
However, he has now been jailed for nine years after killing Lee Martin (48) as the deceased was riding a 10 mile TT.
Gard hit Mr Martin at 65 miles per hour and to conceal the fact he was reading texts at the time he deleted the messages from his phone, his hearing at Winchester Crown Court was told.
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Police evidence stated he had been both reading and sending texts at the time.
He then claimed while he had read the texts, the collision had happened because he was distracted by his young son.
Mr Martin was killed on August 12th last year on the A31 near Bentley in Hampshire when hit by Gard’s van.
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The driver had been convicted just six weeks earlier for the latest in his series of offences using the phone while driving.
But he had been allowed to continue driving when he promised he would keep the phone locked away in future and saying a ban would cause hardship to him and his family because he earned his living from driving.
He was jailed yesterday after he admitted causing death by dangerous driving, which he had initially denied.
The deceased’s brother Darrell Martin (47) said the family felt magistrates had failed the dead man and the family.
"To find out my brother lost his life to someone who had been convicted eight times for using his mobile phone while driving makes the whole thing much worse, so much more senseless and so much more avoidable,” he said in his victim impact statement.
"I think a death was inevitable. Only six weeks before the event he was pleading before magistrates."
The victim was a married father of two and left behind a wife and two daughters aged 12 and 15 years.
Mr Martin was a keen cyclist who had completed the Prudential Ride London-Surrey 100 in the weeks before his death.
He was also a member of North Hampshire Road Club, losing lots of weight cycling and becoming a keen racing club cyclist.
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