Hit-and-run driver Stephen Ivings was starting a four-year jail sentence for leaving a teenager for dead when he knocked him off his motorbike.

Thomas Pedley, 17, of Pagisters Road, Abingdon, died after Ivings pulled out of a junction into his path, on the A4183 Oxford to Abingdon road near Sunningwell, last June.

Ivings, 37, who had drunk four cans of strong lager, was on his way home to Woodlands, Radley, when the accident happened.

He drove off afterwards, leaving the teenager dying in the road.

Thomas, a former pupil at John Mason School in Abingdon, died later in the John Radcliffe Hospital,

Oxford. Last month an Oxford Crown Court jury found Ivings guilty of driving without due care and attention.

"He also admitted dangerous driving, failing to stop after an accident and failing to report it.

Andrew Campbell-Tiech, defending, said Ivings had "panicked and behaved in a very weak and foolish way" following the accident and was distraught by the whole affair.

He said Ivings simply did not see Mr Pedley and added the 37-year-old had vowed never to drive again. "He regrets bitterly what happened," said Mr Campbell-Tiech, "and the degree of remorse, as opposed to self pity, that he has shown after confessing to police has been real.

"He is a stronger man now then he was when he behaved so weakly after the accident.

"His weakness of behaviour was in large part contributed to by the fact that he had been made redundant after many years and he felt a sense of despair."

Judge Andrew Geddes also banned Ivings from driving for five years. He told him: "You know this was a terrible tragedy which resulted in the death of a young man of 17.

"It was a tragedy for his family and I accept it was a tragedy for you because you have to live with the knowledge of what you have done for the rest of your life.

"You did not see Mr Pedley because you did not look to your left at the junction. This was because he had consumed alcohol.

"That is why there is legislation against drinking and driving. It does cause errors of justice."

After last month's trial, Mr Pedley's mother, Barbara, said that the accident had cost her son his life and wrecked his family's lives.

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