A FARMER who left mud on a main road before a fatal crash has been ordered to pay more than £12,000.

George Withers, of Little Lype Farm, Charlton, admitted failing to clear the mud and put out adequate signs before the collision that killed Malmesbury kebab shop owner Mesut Kayran.

At Swindon Crown Court on Tuesday Judge Euan Ambrose told his widow Noreen he had no option but to impose a financial punishment.

"Nothing that I can say and certainly no sentence that I pass will bring Mr Kayran back," he said.

Nigel Fryer, prosecuting, said Withers and his contractors had been harvesting maize for cattle feed from a field next to the B4014 at Sunset hill on October 23, 2008.

He returned in the afternoon to scrape mud from the road using a telehandler with a bucket attached.

Then at 5.50pm a driver phoned the police after temporarily losing control of his car. A PCSO was sent out and decided there was no mud problem.

An hour later Amanda Cole’s Audi went out of control and span off the road. She was waiting in PC Louis Bowden’s car when the final accident happened at about 8.40pm, said Mr Fryer.

Mr Kayran had been heading back to Malmesbury.

Car headlights were seen approaching on the wrong side of the road by Renault Megane driver Lee Mc Fadyen. As he tried to take evasive action he saw the underside of the other car and heard a loud bang.

PC Marcus Beresford-Smith, who investigated the crash, concluded that Mr Kayran had not been speeding and had faced a sudden and dramatic change in road conditions from clean to muddy and wet.

The car had slid and when the driver braked hard the wheels had locked and caused a skid. He believed the fatal injuries occurred when the car landed on its roof.

PC Bowden and others had done their best to save Mr Kayran but he died moments later.

In his report PC Beresford Smith said there was mud on the road, it was excessive and combined with the drizzle had made the surface extremely slippery.

For the defence, Simon Morgan said Withers, 38, was a man of good character. The dairy and beef farm business in which he was a partner had an extremely good safety record.

"He made a mistaken judgement call, essentially, as to the cleanliness of the road." Earlier in the week he had used a slurry tanker full of water to wash the road at another site.

On this occasion he had failed to reassess the situation when it began to rain.

Asking the judge for a penalty that would punish but not destroy Withers, Mr Morgan said the business had suffered because it had not been able to move any animals since November following tuberculosis test results. It had an overdraft facility of £330,000 and would soon have to pay out £125,000 in essential capital expenditure.

Withers took £190 a week in pay, but had been able to draw from profits in the past.

Vet Richard Pearson gave evidence that Withers was "hardworking, responsible, always receptive to veterinary advice," while farm consultant Douglas Green said the family was held in extremely high regard by the family.

Mr Morgan said Withers did not know about the crashes until the following day. "Had he been made aware at an earlier point that there was a problem, given the man that he is, he would have dealt with it expeditiously."

He said the IPCC findings were made in November, but not released to the Crown until two working days before the trial and the revelations had a bearing on the case.

His client had expressed bitter regret over the crash. "He will live with this incident, as he said in his interview, for the rest of his life."

Judge Ambrose said there was little guidance available to him in deciding the penalty.

"I cannot ignore the fact that there was the accident, that Mr Kayran lost his life. That is the very real tragedy in the midst of this case."

He said he had read the victim impact statements from Mr Kayran’s widow and his sister. "It is impossible not to be greatly moved by their contents."

He had been described as an outgoing, sociable and hard-working man, much loved by his family and friends.

Mrs Kayran had lost her husband and her son had lost his father. "This court recognises the very great suffering that she and her family have been caused," he said.

He said he had no option but to fine Withers and that the level did not represent the value of a human life.

Turning his attention to the dock he said: "This was an error on your part Mr Withers, which was avoidable." He could not comment on the IPCC findings that the police should have done more.

"But what can be said is that the police did not make the road slippery. This began with mud being left on the road and the failure to remove that mud in the first instance is what set the chain of events in motion."

He imposed a fine of £11,250 with £1,500 prosecution costs.

Allowing a 25 percent discount for a guilty plea, the judge suggested that Withers’ change of plea on the day the trial was due to start was prompted by the IPCC’s findings. If the report had been available sooner, the admission could have been made sooner.