Crash driver ‘should have been jailed’

From front page She said: “I think it is not good enough. At the end of the day this man has killed somebody.

“I don’t know what to say. It has taken a long time for us to come this far, and he should have been sent to prison.”

The 51-year-old added: “Within a year he will be back on the road, and what’s to stop something like this from happening again?”

Mr Currer, of Shortlands Green, was known affectionately by friends as DC and had been a volunteer and support worker for organisations including Alcoholics Anonymous.

He was knocked off his bike on December 1 last year while riding near Summers Motors on the A274 Headcorn Road near the junction with Smarden Road.

The “gentleman biker” as he was known, played a prominent role in organising the Green Park event in Mote Park to raise awareness of environmental issues.

Friend of 30 years Gill Vallance was also critical of the sentence handed out at Folkestone Magistrates’ Court last week.

She said: “It is very lenient and I am sad it has taken so long. We are all still grieving.”

Berdikyan, of Shenley Park in Headcorn, admitted causing death by dangerous driving and driving without due care and attention in his Mazda 3.

He was given an 18-week suspended prison sentence, as well as the ban, and ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £80 and court costs of £85.