Man who killedmotorcyclist had no driving licence
9:34am Tuesday 14th February 2012 in News
A DEATH crash driver who hit a motorcyclist while trying to turn into a restaurant car park had never held a licence, a court heard.
A judge said 22-year-old Nathan Lynch would still be alive if Adam Rickhuss had not got behind the wheel.
Rickhuss, aged 33, of Burns Avenue, Leigh, was yesterday jailed for 13 months over the fatal crash.
The collision happened on March 14 last year as Rickhuss tried to cross into the car park of the San Marino restaurant near Belmont.
At Preston Crown Court, Rickhuss pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving, causing death by driving while uninsured and causing death by driving while unlicensed.
Mr Lynch died at the scene and his friend, Tony Crowe, riding another motorcycle, was seriously injured in the collision with Rickhuss’s Ford Mondeo car.
Daniel King, defending, said: “He is deeply remorseful, deeply ashamed of the extent to which he contributed to that tragic accident.”
The court was told that Rickhuss had bought the car from a friend a few weeks earlier — but had driven for years despite not having a licence.
Judge Anthony Russell QC told Rickhuss: “The most serious aspect of this case, in my view, is that this accident would never have happened at all if you obeyed the law, because you wouldn’t have been there and you wouldn’t have been there because you had no licence to drive and you were not insured.
“If you had not disobeyed the motoring laws, Nathan Lynch would not have been killed and Tony Crowe would not have been injured.
“You have regularly driven for years without a licence and without insurance.
That, in my view, is a seriously aggravating feature.
“You have other criminal convictions. It is clear obedience to the law has little meaning for you. This is a decent family who have lost a much-loved member at a young age”, the judge added.
Rickhuss was also given a four-year driving ban.
Pat Doyle, Mr Lynch’s grandmother, said after the sentencing: “No matter what sentence he got, be it one year or 20 years, it will never bring Nathan back.
“It has taken the death of my grandson to get him off the streets from driving illegally.
“We still miss Nathan deeply and are trying to adjust.”
