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A hit-and-run driver who killed a pensioner as she had a 'hands free' phone call with her boyfriend wept as she was fined £500.

Anna Edwards, 25, was speaking legally through a car headset to her partner but she failed to spot 77-year old Brian Croxon who had slipped on cobbles and fallen into the road ahead of her.

The car in front of her took evasive action, but Edwards drove over Mr Croxon as he lay in the road in Oldham, Greater Manchester, and then carried on driving.

As other motorists stopped to attend to the dying man, Edwards briefly returned to the scene and then drove past slowly before slinking away.

(Image: Cavendish Press)

Mr Croxon, a former president of the Royton Brass Band club in Oldham for 20 years, suffered fatal injuries in the impact outside the club's premisis and died shortly afterwards.

Edwards, an administrative assistant for healthcare provider Bupa, was arrested later but claimed she thought she had hit a pile of "rubbish" left dumped in the road.

It emerged one of headlamps on her Ford Fiesta was not working properly.

Open University business management student Edwards stood trial at Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester, accused of causing death by careless driving with prosecutors accusing her of being "distracted" by the phone call.

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But she was cleared of the charge having earlier admitted failing to stop or report an accident.

Her licence was endorsed with eight penalty points but she was spared a driving ban.

Motorists are banned from using handheld phones at the wheel but can legally use hands free kits to field calls.

Road safety groups believe mobile phones should be completely switched off while driving, to avoid any distractions.

The tragedy occurred at 11pm on December 8 last year whilst Edwards was in the midst of a four minute and 20 second phone call with her boyfriend with whom she had earlier been arguing.

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Kevin Donnelly, prosecuting, said: “One of her dipped headlights was not working on the day of the incident and there’s evidence to suggest that it had not been working for about three weeks.

"At the time of the collision, she was in a conversation with somebody although she was using a car headset which is not unlawful."

Mr Croxon, who visited the brass band club six nights a week, had arrived at around 9.10pm and left just under two hours later.

Outside the club at 11pm he was seen to stumble on cobbles at a road junction before falling into the the path of a Citroen Piccasso driven by Kelly Winstanley.

(Image: Cavendish Press)

Mr Donnelly said: "Mr Croxon had three single whiskeys and lemonades but did not seem to be drunk according to a member of staff.

"Miss Winstanley describes him as standing on a cobbled surface of road and as she approached, something caused him to stumble into the road directly in front of her.

"Miss Winstanley’s instant reaction was to swerve to the right to avoid hitting him then swerved back into her own lane and she looked in her mirror and saw him motionless.

“The defendant was also driving in the same direction as Miss Winstanley but she drove over Mr Croxon as he lay in the road.

"Although something caused him to fall in the road, he was alive and what killed him was the impact of the defendant’s Ford Fiesta.

“The prosecution’s case is that Anna Edwards did not swerve to avoid hitting Brian Croxon and did not brake to come to a halt."

(Image: Cavendish Press)

CCTV footage examined by police showed Edwards was travelling below the 30mph speed limit at between 24mph and 28mph and was travelling 100 metres behind Miss Winstanley's Citroen.

The prosecutor added: "The stopping time is somewhere in the region of 11 seconds and Mr Croxon would have been visible to the defendant for about 10 seconds for a distance of about 100 metres.

"After the Citroen Picasso went past Mr Croxon, Ms Edwards had an uninterrupted view of Mr Croxon.

“She did not immediately stop. She drove on to the next junction in the road and she turned around and came back to the scene of the collision but by the time she got back, a number of people were surrounding Brian Croxon. She did not stop, she drove past the scene slowly and then she drove on.

“If Anna Edwards had acted immediately to what she saw in the road, she would have brought her car to a halt in something like 4.5 seconds and that would have carried a distance of about 30 metres."

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Edwards was arrested later.

She gave a no comment interview to police but gave a statement saying she saw a "dark object in the road and was unable to move around it".

She told the trial she was sparking to her boyfriend as she "she wanted company" and denied claims she was distracted.

She said: "We had been arguing because we hadn’t seen each other much lately and we were just deciding whether to see each other.

"We were planning to meet, so I set off to his house in Salford. We were just talking about his day and football."

She denied arguing with her boyfriend whilst at the wheel and also said she did not know her front passenger headlight was not working.

When asked whether she realised Mr Croxon was lying in the road, she said: “It didn’t look like a person - I thought it was rubbish.

"What was going through my head was that I needed to avoid it, but it didn’t feel safe to swerve. The car on the other side of the road was obstructing me from doing a full swerve.”

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“At the next junction, I turned around as I needed to know. I suspected that it was a person, but I didn’t know 100 per cent. I was so scared.

"I saw people and cars all together and I was petrified. I didn’t want to get out of the car, I didn’t know what to say.

"I stopped and put my hazards on, but when I looked over, I just thought that I couldn’t get out of the car. I have never been in trouble before."

She added: “I was scared about a million things, not just one thing. What would happen to me? What would happen to my family?”

As the verdict was returned by the jury after three hours deliberation Edwards turned round and said "sorry" to Mr Croxon's family, who were sat in the public gallery, but they ignored her. The family left court without comment.

Sentencing, Judge Bernadette Baxter told Edwards: “I understand this has been an extremely stressful time for you and you are genuinely remorseful for not having stopped and reporting the accident.

"I hope you understand just how dangerous that behaviour was."