A company director was cleared of causing death by dangerous driving.

But jurors at Oxford Crown Court convicted Paul Cohen, 37, of a lesser charge of careless driving. He was fined £1,500 and banned from driving for 12 months.

His passenger, Gregory Hamilton, 37, died after Cohen crashed his TVR Griffith into a Mitsubshi Shogun which had stopped on the B4012 Thame Park Road, Thame.

Cohen admitted driving at up to 80mph in a 60mph limit.

Cohen, of Meadle, Bucks, former managing director of Data Design Ltd of Thame Business Park, had said that when he braked to avoid the parked car his TVR weaved across the road.

He said: "The car behaved totally erratically and in trying to recover the position, I lost control. I remember putting my foot on the brake and immediately the car shuffled and weaved." "I immediately tried to put my foot on the brake to try and correct it."

The £350,000 TVR, capable of speeds up to 160 mph, ended up partially in a ditch on the side of the road.

The court heard Anthony Wharton had stopped his Mitsubishi on the road so he could talk to a farmer ploughing his field on the other side of the hedge. He said he had put his hazard lights on and was safely parked.

Sentencing Cohen, Judge Paul Clark extended his sympathy to Mr Hamilton's family but said he was sure Cohen and his family had also suffered greatly.

He awarded Cohen his legal costs following representations from his counsel, Richard Latham QC.

Story date: Friday 12 February

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