A MOTORIST convicted of dangerous driving has avoided jail for a second time after his barrister said he failed to work with Probation Service staff because of a bereavement.

John Anthony Rumney, 23, was last month given a suspended 10 month jail sentence.

The sentence, along with 120 hours of unpaid work in the community, was imposed after he admitted dangerous driving, failing to stop after an accident, and associated driving offences.

A judge told him he could have been facing a charge of causing death by dangerous driving.

The charges came after he crashed into family's car on the B5300 in August and then fled the scene, leaving a couple and their three young children shaken and with slight injuries.

Rumney, of Eden Street, Silloth, was brought back to Carlisle Crown Court today where he admitted failing to attend appointments with probation officials on two occasions in October and November.

Prosecutor Brendan Burke said that on October 13, Rumney's mother had rang Probation Service officials and said he did not have the cash to travel to his induction day.

As a result, the service issued travel warrants and on October 31 he did turn up at the service's Carlisle office.

He was told to come back on November 14 but he again called in, saying there was a problem with his travel warrant. Rumney also failed to turn up for his 120 hours unpaid work, which is part of his sentence.

Tim Evans, for the defendant, told Recorder Stephen Bedford: "I have indicated to him that this was like a crash course in how to get yourself sent to prison."

The barrister said the defendant had spent much of the conference before the hearing in tears - partly because of the situation he had put himself in and partly because of a family bereavement.

This had led Rumney to suffer an emotional meltdown, said Mr Evans.

"He has lost his grandmother, to whom he was very close, on December 8. She is due to be buried on December 19.

"One of the things he promised himself and his nan was that he was going to get himself sorted out, but if he doesn't keep that promise he knows where he is going."

Recorder Bedford described the defendant's attitude to his sentence and the Probation element of it as "casual," saying: "You will do an additional 30 hours of unpaid work.

"Let me make it absolutely clear: if you treat these requirements in future as your have treated them up to now, you won't be going out of that door [the exit from the dock]; you will be going out of the door behind you [to the cells].

"You will have sentenced yourself to serve that [prison] sentence."

The judge who originally sentenced Rumney last month told him: “You could be stood here facing many, many years’ imprisonment for charges of causing death by dangerous driving.”