THE parents of a motorcyclist killed when a car with defective brakes swerved into his path said they were not surprised the driver had escaped a ban.

Sandra Teyen, of Wiltshire Way, Westbury, was fined £400 and given penalty points on her licence at Chippenham magistrates' court on Friday, after admitting charges of careless driving and driving with defective brakes.

John Laurence, 43, a father-of-two from Stoke Gifford, was killed instantly when his Ducati motorbike collided with Mrs Teyen's 4x4 Vauxhall Frontera on the A36 at Black Dog Hill, near Warminster, in August 2004. The court heard Mrs Teyen applied her brakes, which were faulty, too late and swerved to avoid crashing into the car in front.

Tests showed her brakes were only working at 51 per cent efficiency at the time. Mr Laurence's father Bob, who lives in Backwell, Bristol, said: "It seems an incredibly light slap on the wrist. It seems to have trivialised road accidents. "We have no ill feelings towards the woman accidents can happen to anyone."

Mr Laurence said he and his wife, Norah, were now trying to get on with their lives.

He said: "We are getting used to the idea but you never completely forget. "It's in the quiet moments that you tend to think about it more, like in the middle of the night neither my wife nor I sleep very well."

Teyen changed her plea in March and admitted the two charges after originally denying them. She said she had taken the car into a garage to have the brakes looked at and still was not happy with them but decided to drive the car anyway.

Magistrates fined her £200 for each of the charges and put eleven points on Mrs Teyen's license, three to run concurrently, which in addition to the three she already had, means she is still on the road. She was also ordered to pay £150 in costs.

At the time of the crash police described the scene as one of the most harrowing they had ever seen. Residents living in nearby Chapmanslade said the stretch of the A36 was notorious for accidents and called for double white lines across the whole stretch.