Farmer George Withers has been fined £11,250 with £1,500 costs after mud he left on the road led to the death of kebab shop owner Mesut Kayran.

Withers, of Little Lype House, Charlton, Malmesbury, was told level of friction on the carriageway was like "compacted snow" when drizzle started to fall on the muddy road.

Just hours after the 38-year-old thought he had cleared away the mud a number of accidents took place including the fatal smash.

Kebeb shop boss Mr Kayran was driving back to his business in Malmesbury when he lost control of his Vauxhall Astra on the B4014 at Sunset Hill.

As he came round a left hand bend the vehicle hit the 300 metre patch of dirty road and the wheels locked when he applied the brakes.

The vehicle then hit the opposite verge and a tree before rolling along to the carriageway and striking a car coming the other way.

A judge at Swindon Crown Court yesterday heard the 28-year-old co-owner of Malmesbury Pizza and Kebab House probably suffered fatal head injuries when the car rolled on its roof.

And the court heard that soon after his death Mr Kayran’s widow Noreen found out she was pregnant with a son.

Nigel Fryer, prosecuting, said the accident happened at about 8.40pm on Thursday October 23, 2008.

A couple of hours earlier a woman in an Audi A3 on the same stretch of road losing control and ending up in a ditch.

And an hour before that another motorist had called the police after sliding on the mud and nearly crashing.

The court was told how that morning Withers had been harvesting maize from a field adjacent to the road.

He said he had used a vehicle with a mechanical bucket on the front to scrape the mud off the road and didn’t think it was necessary to wash the surface, which could easily have done.

Mr Fryer said “Had the road been sufficiently clear and the correct signage in place the collision could have been avoided.”

He added that signs were partly obscured by undergrowth at the side of the road and were ‘almost worthless in the hours of darkness’.

Withers pleaded guilty to failing to ensure the safety of other road users by leaving mud on the road with inadequate signage Simon Morgan, defending, said his client was devastated by the results of his failure to properly clear the road.

“This is an extremely sad case. May I start by expressing my client’s deepest sympathy for those who have lost a loved one as a result of this,” he said.

The case was not one where he had made no effort to clear the road, he said, but instead one where ‘he made a mistaken judgement call as to the cleanliness of the road’.

At no stage did his client try to cut corners or save money by not doing the extra work to move the mud.

He said his client, who is engaged to be married, was the latest in the line of the Withers family to be farmers and was partner in the family business.

They were well respected in the community, he said, and had a good record with no convictions, accidents of health and safety investigations.

Passing sentence Judge Euan Ambrose said “There is no doubt that the presence of mud on the road was a significant cause of the accident and therefore his death.”

He added that the offence would have been committed whether there was an accident or not but the fact that a man died aggravated the conviction.

“This was an error on your part Mr Withers which was avoidable: having said that it was not deliberate or reckless,” he said.

“You thought you had cleared the mud away but as you now know you had not done so sufficiently to leave the road in a safe condition.”

Imposing the financial penalty to judge pointed out that a fine was the only penalty available to the court for the conviction.

Passing his condolences to the family of Mr Kayran he said “Nothing that I say today can change what for you is a great tragedy.”