A van driver with eight previous convictions for using his phone at the wheel killed a cyclist after reading a text message, just weeks after magistrates let him keep his licence.

Christopher Gard, 30, was jailed for nine years after he ploughed into keen cyclist Lee Martin, 48, who was competing in a ten mile time trial event.

Gard struck Mr Martin at 65mph, then later took a "deliberate and calculated" action in deleting three messages from his mobile phone to hide the fact he was using it, Winchester Crown Court, heard.

The driver accepted he had read the message, but claimed that the collision itself happened because he was distracted by his young son.

The crash, on August 12 last year on the A31 dual carriageway near Bentley, Hants, happened just six weeks after Gard, of Alton, Hants, was allowed to keep his licence.