An epileptic who had been cleared to drive had a fit at the wheel and ploughed into another car, killing the driver.

Stephen Amor, 42, of Warwick Road, Bexhill, strayed onto the wrong side of a dual carriageway and smashed into Margaret Gosling's BMW.

Amor, a factory manager, was given a two-year suspended sentence for causing death by dangerous driving at Hove Crown Court yesterday, in what the judge described as a tragic case.

Mrs Gosling's husband Michael, of Muddles Green, Chiddingly, near Hailsham, said: "I don't hate him. I can't understand how he was ever allowed to drive if his doctor knew about it.

"This has left a tremendous hole in my life and taken away someone very special to me. I didn't want a custodial sentence. I don't think it would achieve anything - it won't bring her back."

Mother-of-four Mrs Gosling, 60, was driving home from a shopping trip to Eastbourne on November 24 2004 with her husband of 32 years in the back.

Amor, at the time employed at a double-glazing firm, was heading south along the A22 from a job in Crowborough when he had a seizure.

His white Vauxhall van drifted into the wrong lane near Lower Dicker and ran headlong into the BMW at 60mph.

He said he had no recollection of the journey for two miles before the crash. Mrs Gosling died of her injuries later that day and Mr Gosling required months of in-patient care at a London hospital.

The court heard Amor was diagnosed with epilepsy in 2002 when he suffered his first grand mal seizure. He surrendered his driving licence straight away.

He had not had a grand mal seizure for a year when the licence was returned to him in August 2004, just three months before the accident. His doctors completed reports for the DVLA saying he was fit to drive.

Amor was taking medication and had learned to stave off grand mal episodes by taking sweets or sugary drinks when he felt the hot, shaky sensation that preceded a fit.

He experienced the sensation a few hours before the crash but ate sweets and believed he was back to normal.

The court heard these and other epileptic symptoms including spasmodic jerks meant that he should not have been allowed to drive, according to DVLA rules.

Defence counsel Rossaro Scamadella told the court: "He told his doctors of his symptoms and their interpretation of the driving regulations was not so strict as to preclude him from being safe to drive."

Amor also suffered from periods of vacancy or memory lapse, described as "absences", which he apparently did not realise were part of his condition and about which his doctors said they knew nothing.

Passing sentence, Judge Anthony Scott-Gall said: "You were not told, sadly, that you should not be behind the wheel of a vehicle.

"It is a fact of life that where there are cars to drive and roads to drive on there is a feckless part of society that drive quite irresponsibly and dangerously.

"You do not fit into that category."

Amor and his wife Karen have two severely physically and mentally disabled children, Nancy, 20, and Greg, 15, who require 24-hour care. Amor was frequently responsible for driving them to hospital and other appointments.

Judge Scott-Gall said: "You would not be a person of that responsibility who would knowingly flout the law."