AN award-winning youth worker and football referee was fined £2,000 and banned from the roads yesterday after an accident in which an 85-year-old woman died.

Richard Antony Brine, 42, a commercial manager with Corus, on Teesside, appeared at Harrogate Magistrates' Court and pleaded guilty to careless driving and driving his company Saab with two illegal tyres.

The court heard how Brine, of Cranbourne Drive, Redcar, hit the back of Dorothy Bartram's Nissan on the A168 dual carriageway at Asenby, near Thirsk, North Yorkshire, on March 4 as she sat in it waiting for help with a clutch problem.

Sam Rogers, prosecuting, said the Nissan's hazard warning lights had been on when the accident happened, in heavy rain.

Miss Bartram, of Hemlington, Middlesbrough, was on her way home from visiting relatives in Leeds when her car was hit. She died in hospital.

Angus Ashman, in mitigation, said Brine had been returning to Redcar after he took his sons to their home in Scunthorpe.

Mr Ashman said: "It was an appalling night, dark and with rain pouring down.

"He came around a sweeping left-hand bend and did not see this vehicle, partly on and partly off the carriageway, until very late. He was unable to avoid a collision."

He said Brine, who had not been speeding or driving erratically, was guilty of a momentary mistake that had dreadful consequences. He said Brine had been told his front tyres were double the legal limit when his car had been serviced in November.

The court was told that between then and the accident, they had worn down and he had forgotten to deal with them.

Mr Ashman told the court that Brine, the chairman of Redcar and Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, put a great deal back into his local community. He refereed football matches for local children, was a committee member of Teesside FA and had been given the Sportsmanship of the Year award by Middlesbrough FC for his services to youth football.

Mr Ashman said Brine had nine penalty points on his licence, stood to be disqualified for six months and had already used his one exceptional hardship argument to avoid a ban.

The court banned him from driving for 12 months, fined him £1,000 for careless driving and ordered concurrent three month bans on each of the tyre offences, for which two £500 fines were imposed. Costs of £45 were also ordered.