A WOMAN motorist has been ordered to pay £305 for driving without due care and attention following a collision in which an off-duty policeman died.

Det Con Robin Povall died of serious injuries after his bicycle was in collision with a car in Weymouth, a magistrates court was told.

The bench heard that the car driver had not seen the oncoming cyclist as she made a right turn.

At Blandford Court Tina Maureen Raye Ward, 36, of Bagwell Farm, Knights in the Bottom, Chickerell, admitted driving without due care and attention in Radipole Lane on March 7.

She was ordered to pay a fine and costs totalling £305 and had six penalty points put on her driving licence.

Magistrates decided that the tragic accident followed a momentary lapse of concentration.

The court was told the accident had been just after 4pm when 50-year-old police scenes-of-crime officer Robin Povall had been cycling home from work.

Ward's Nissan Micra car, which had been coming from the opposite direction, turned directly into the path of the bicycle. Magistrates heard that the police officer's cycle would have been within the sight line of the car driver when she began to make the turn and he was wearing high visibility clothing, including a bright yellow top.

Defending, Rod Evans told the court: "This is a truly tragic set of events."

He added Ward was full of remorse over the accident adding: "She had slowed down and indicated. She didn't see him. She cannot explain why she didn't see him."

Ward, a cleaner at the caravan park where she lives, had been returning from Wey-mouth with her 14-year-old son.

He said Ward was adamant that she had looked and told the court that her son had not spotted the cyclist either.