A driver who killed a motorcyclist when he pulled out without looking at a crossroads has been freed from jail after having his sentence reduced. 

Frank Wells watched via video link from HMP Norwich as judges at the Court of Appeal ruled his original sentence should have been suspended.

The 79-year-old, from Castle Acre, was jailed for eight months by Judge Alice Robinson at Norwich Crown Court last month after pleading guilty to causing death by careless driving. 

Motorcyclist Tony Frost, 62, died after he collided with a Vauxhall Meriva being driven by the pensioner on the B1145 at Great Massingham in May 2022.

Eastern Daily Press: Frank Wells inched his Vauxhall Meriva out into the path of the biker at a crossroads, the court heardFrank Wells inched his Vauxhall Meriva out into the path of the biker at a crossroads, the court heard (Image: Google)

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At the time of sentencing him, Judge Robinson had said he had inched out into the path of the oncoming biker on the 60mph main road when he should have seen him.

The Court of Appeal dismissed defence arguments that the judge had miscategorised the offence when she ruled he had been carrying out an “unsafe manoeuvre” rather than it being a “momentary lapse of concentration”.

But it ruled she had failed to fully take into account mitigation and had wrongly stated a suspended sentence “would be no punishment at all”.

The court was told Wells had a previous 50 year unblemished driving record and had “shown real and genuine remorse throughout”.

He is also the full-time carer of his disabled wife, who was a passenger at the time of the crash.

 Eastern Daily Press: Judge Alice Robinson had jailed Frank Wells for eight months at Norwich Crown CourtJudge Alice Robinson had jailed Frank Wells for eight months at Norwich Crown Court (Image: Newsquest)

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Lord Justice Stuart Smith, sitting with Mr Justice Morris, said: “I’m quite satisfied that the cause of this crash was your preoccupation with what the driver on the opposite side of the junction might do and that when you pulled out you failed to look for traffic."

Resentencing him to eight months suspended for two years, Lord Justice Smith said the reduction should not be viewed as “demeaning to the memory of the victim”. 

“We are acutely conscious that no sentence whatsoever can in any way measure or reflect the importance of the life that was lost,” he said.