A motorist who admitted causing a fatal accident walked free from court after being cleared of causing death by dangerous driving.

Instead, Mark Neville, who accepted his van was on the wrong side of the road when it collided head-on with a motorcycle, was convicted of careless driving.

Neville, of Terminus Road, Littlehampton, was fined £600 at Guildford Crown Court and banned from driving for three years.

He also admitted driving without insurance and without a licence and received a total of ten penalty points.

Neville had pleaded not guilty to causing the death of Alan Wingate, 64, by dangerous driving in Horsham Road, Cranleigh, Surrey, on August 15 last year.

The 33-year-old carpenter was accused of trying to overtake a car on a blind bend.

The hearing was told that both Neville's van and Mr Wingate’s motorcycle were travelling within the 40mph speed limit when the accident occurred at about 9.30pm.

There was no dispute the collision had happened nearly 5ft on to Mr Wingate’s side of the road.

The court heard evidence from a Hungarian family who were driving towards Cranleigh when they became aware of Neville’s vehicle very close behind.

Driver Szabolcs Rakovszky told the jury: “As I approached the second bend I felt the other car was trying to overtake me.”

Neither he nor his passengers saw the accident but all said they heard a bang.

Simon Connolly, prosecuting, said Neville, growing frustrated because the car in front was driving slowly, decided to overtake the vehicle and “ran headlong into a motorcyclist, who was unable to stop in time”.

But Neville, backed up by his girlfriend Eleanor Ottway, insisted he was unaware of another car in front of him, telling the jury it was a simple case of driver error.

After he was found guilty, it was revealed that just days after the fatal accident Neville had been jailed for 12 months and banned from driving for four years for an offence of dangerous driving the previous Christmas.

Judge Michael Addison said it was “a bad case of careless driving”.