Moray death crash driver told to do unpaid work

A driver who caused the death of a young mother in Moray has been ordered to carry out unpaid work.

Robert Macdonald, 32, was on a mobile phone call to his wife when he crashed into a car driven by 28-year-old Leigh-Anne Wood on the A96 near Fochabers in April 2020.

At Inverness Sheriff Court, he admitted causing death by careless driving.

Macdonald was ordered to carry out 300 hours of unpaid community work and banned from driving for three years.

Mrs Wood had slowed down, but her car was hit from the rear and pushed into the path of an oncoming van.

Sheriff Robert Frazer criticised Macdonald, of Elgin, for being on a phone call.

He said what happened was "nothing short of a tragic incident whereby you failed to observe Mrs Woods car slowing its speed and failed in your duty to fully concentrate on the road ahead".

He said he decided against a prison sentence because of Macdonald's clean driving record, and the effect the accident had on him personally.

Relatives of Mrs Wood, also of Elgin, were in court for the sentencing, and some cried at the outcome.

Her father Duncan Smart said afterwards: "The sentence was more lenient than we expected. But we were primed it may be in the community. The family will never come to terms with this. Nothing will bring Leigh-Anne back.

"We have to move on. The biggest feeling is for her daughter Charlotte who will grow up without her mum. We are all just numb."