The family of a man killed cycling home from his Hatfield business have said they are devastated at the suspended sentence given to the driver.

Deborah Kelly (nee Hearn) of Tubbs Croft, Welwyn Garden City, who killed Kenneth Lush, 47, of Ware on the A414, escaped with a suspended sentence at St Albans Crown Court on Friday when the judge learned she was about to give birth.

Conny Lush, his widow, said: “We are devastated by the lenient sentence given by the judge. Leaving the scene of a road traffic accident should be considered as heinous and dangerous a crime as drinking, taking drugs or using a mobile phone when driving. 

"It should be placed in the highest category for sentencing and should have merited an immediate custodial sentence not a suspended sentence.

Our lives will never be the same again.” 

Her solicitor, Liz Dux of Russell Jones and Walker, said: “The judge found that Mr Lush did not contribute in any way to this accident.

"What has made the family particularly angry is that the driver, who was the sole contributing cause of this fatal incident and who fled the scene afterwards, has not been treated more seriously by the court.”

Mr Lush, a father-of-four, was killed when cycling home from his family-run business, Lush Heat Treatment in Hatfield.