A GRANDFATHER whose careless driving led to the death a 91-year-old woman was yesterday ordered to stay off the roads until he passed a driving test.

Arthur Leslie Coley ran over Hilda Slee as he left a supermarket car park in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, in January. At Harrogate Magistrates' Court yesterday, he pleaded guilty to careless driving.

Retired mining surveyor Coley, 74, was fined £400 with £80 costs and banned from driving for six months, after which he will have to take a driving test.

An inquest in June recorded an accidental death verdict on Mrs Slee, of Hookstone Chase, Harrogate.

Sarah Tyrer, prosecuting, said Coley, of St James Avenue, Harrogate, had left the Safeway store to go on to the dual carriageway Victoria Avenue.

He had crossed to the central hatched area and then turned right without seeing Mrs Slee. Witnesses said Mrs Slee had been waving her arms in an attempt to attract Coley's attention before being thrown on to the car bonnet and then to the road.

In mitigation, Clive Farndon said Coley had made a cautious exit from the car park at four or five miles an hour. In the central area of Victoria Avenue he checked left, the direction from which traffic would come, saw it was clear and went to complete his manoeuvre.

"What he did not do was check carefully to his right as well before setting off," he said. "If he had done so, it is more than likely he would have seen Mrs Slee and this accident would not have happened."

Mr Farndon said Coley offered his sincere and deep regret to Mrs Slee's family.

"He would want everyone to know this is a matter which weighs very heavily on his mind and which will continue to do so for many years to come," he said.

Coley, married with two children and four grandchildren, had been driving for 58 years, the court heard.