A Brownie leader from Praa Sands has been ordered to carry out unpaid work and banned from driving after she admitted being responsible for a crash which left a motorcyclist dead.

Magistrates in Truro heard on Monday that Mitchell John Gilbert, 25, of Hayle, who was killed at St Erth at 7.15am on July 29 when a car pulled out of a junction and hit his machine, had not stood a chance according to a witness.

Before magistrates was Lydia Denise Beacham, 37, of Trewelloe Road, Praa Sands, who pleaded guilty to causing Mr Gilbert's death by driving a Toyota Auris on the A30 without due care and attention.

Prosecutor Alison May said the accident had been witnessed by a bus driver and his passenger. The motor cycle had been driving quite normally along the road, she said, when it was hit by Beacham’s car, which had pulled out from the junction at Station Approach.

The bus driver told the police the car had just pulled out of the junction into the path of the oncoming bike. His passenger said the same. She said she did not know how Beacham had not seen the bike, which had not stood a chance.

She spoke to the car driver after it happened, who told her: “I did not see him. I just did not see him.”

Beacham, who works in quality assurance and is a Girl Guide Brownie leader, had no previous convictions.

Her solicitor Rob Eccleston said she had had a momentary inattention which had had tragic consequences and she had been utterly devastated by it.

She had stopped at the junction, looked right and left, waited for another vehicle to pass, looked right again and had seen nothing, she then looked left again before pulling out. She could not explain why she had not seen Mr Gilbert.

Beacham was given a 12 month community order, told to do 200 hours of unpaid work, and pay £325 costs and charges. She was also banned from driving for a year.