A lorry driver who killed a cyclist at a notorious London junction was spared jail by an Old Bailey judge.

John Green, 54, ran over Spanish waiter Victor Rodriguez, 32, in his 32 ton truck as he turned left at the Ludgate Circus junction in the City.

He failed to check his mirrors to see if anyone was in the cycle lane before making the late decision to turn at 10am in April last year.

Mr Rodriguez had been on his hands free mobile phone chatting to his girlfriend as he was first knocked down and then run over.

Green was convicted of causing death by careless driving after a short trial and received a 12 month driving ban and was ordered to carry out 150 hours unpaid work.

Sentencing, Judge Charles Wide, QC, said: "The sadness and tragedy of what happened has hung over this trial and everyone involved with it throughout has been truly conscious of the loss that (Mr Rodriguez's) family have suffered, and indeed all those who knew him.

"It has been right in the forefront of everybody's minds, although during the case we have had to focus in quite a technical legal way on the issue of Mr Green's driving.

"The fact that we have had to do that does not mean that anyone has forgotten what his family and friends have been through."

He continued: "I'm very conscious as all judges are that no sentence I can pass can bring a victim back.

"There's no way of making reparation or compensation through the sentence for your loss, and it's very important to understand that a sentence passed in a case like this does not in any way seek to equate or make equivalence to the value of the life."

The court heard Mr Rodriguez had moved to the UK from Spain with his girlfriend Virginia Alonso-Ruano in 2013.

He had just been to an interview at a Mexican restaurant in Chancery Lane and was telling Ms Alonso-Ruano about it as he cycled back through the City down Fleet Street.

Green, of Chigwell, was carrying a load of scrap metal from Chancery Lane to Canning Town.