"AN ABSOLUTE menace on the roads" has been imprisoned for 18 months after causing the death of a Gloucester welder.
Graham Godwin was disqualified from driving, as well as speeding and carrying a passenger on his one-seated Shineray motorcycle, when it collided with Paul Stock, 53, on March 3.
The 36-year-old pleaded guilty to causing death while driving when disqualified, causing death while not being insured, and using a false name to obtain insurance.
Gloucester Crown Court heard Godwin had 12 previous convictions for driving without insurance, nine for driving while disqualified and three for drink driving.
Judge Jamie Tabor QC described the case as the "worst of its type imaginable" at court yesterday.
Mr Tabor said: "This was bound to happen at some time or another and I say that because he is a man with an appalling driving record."
He said the maximum allowed by law for the driving offences was two years – but he was legally bound to reduce it to 18 months to give Godwin credit for his guilty plea.
Mr Stock, who ran popular vehicle body shop SAS in Tredworth with his wife Mandy, died in hospital a week after the collision.
A search of unemployed Godwin's home at Winnycroft Lane in Matson found 12 cannabis plants. A further six months imprisonment was added to his sentence after he admitted production of the class B drug.
For more, see tomorrow's Citizen
