THE distraught family of a girl killed when a teenage driver lost control of his car branded his sentence of a £500 fine and a 12-month ban as "pathetic" last night.

Belinda Blagg, 17, died when she was thrown from a car driven by Lewis Hardy in August last year.

The packed car was travelling at up to 70mph when the inexperienced driver lost control at an accident blackspot and hit a dry stone wall.

But yesterday, as the 18-year-old walked free from Teesside Crown Court, Belinda's mother, Linda, said: "To us, Belinda's death is a life sentence. He will probably get married and have a family of his own. We have lost all that."

Hardy, of Bog House Farm, Eggleston, near Barnard Castle, yesterday denied causing Belinda's death by dangerous driving, and the prosecution accepted a guilty plea to a lesser charge of careless driving.

Belinda, of Ayresome Street, Middlesbrough, was one of five people in a Vauxhall Nova driven by trainee hairdresser Hardy.

She was with a 14-year-old friend on a trip to Middleton in Teesdale where they met a group of local boys, including Hardy.

Shaun Dodds, prosecuting, told the court Hardy lost control on a corner near Folly Top, Eggleston.

Belinda was flung through the rear window. There was no glass in the window as it had been vandalised the night before and Hardy had replaced it with a sheet of plastic.

Belinda suffered head injuries and died in Darlington Memorial Hospital.

Hardy told police he had been driving at between 60mph and 70mph. He admitted a safer speed would have been about 50mph.

Jamie Hill, for Hardy, said his client had no previous convictions.

He thought about the tragedy every hour of every day and apologised profusely for what had happened.

Mr Hill described the accident as an "momentary error of judgement" and said Hardy was a respectable young man.

Belinda's family said after the case that she had been hoping to start a vet's assistant course at Middlesbrough College.

Her father, Stanley Blagg, 48, said: "I was totally dumbfounded by the pathetic sentence.

"My daughter is dead and in a year's time he'll be driving again." The couple are now planning to sue.