A DISTRAUGHT father is planning to take civil action after a lorry driver involved in a fatal accident had his sentence cut on appeal.

Alan Tott broke down and cried last night after seeing Dutch driver Huig Ouwehand have his fine for careless driving reduced from £1,600 to £1,000 and a UK driving ban cut from two years to two months.

Now Mr Tott plans to take civil action against the 52-year-old driver, who he says has never even apologised for causing his son's death more than a year ago.

RAF technician Kristoffer Tott, 22, who was due to wed his American fiancee Blair Anderson, died of head injuries in December 2004, three days before the wedding.

He had been travelling home from work along the A14 at Newmarket, Suffolk, when the lorry driver clipped his car, sending him spinning into the path of another lorry.

He was in intensive care for eight days before he died on December 9.

Magistrates last year found Ouwehand, from Katwijk, Holland, guilty of careless driving and said they were treating it as a very serious example of careless driving.

However, on appeal at Ipswich Crown Court, Recorder John Brooke-Smith upheld the conviction, but lowered the fine and the ban and said he considered the case to be at the "lower end" of the scale.

"It has been a farce," said Mr Tott, of Harlsey Road, Hartburn, Stockton.

"It's a travesty of justice and it's all wrong. I'm very angry, but I can't vent that anger and I can't bring Kristoffer back. We have not even had an apology.

"Now I want to pursue a civil case and any cash we get will go to one of Kristoffer's favourite charities."

Ouwehand was also ordered to pay the costs of both court hearings, amounting to £744, along with a £400 fine for breaching drivers' working hours.