Taxi driver killed dad-of-two Shaun Hodgkinson after running him over in Sandyford High StreetTAXI driver Mohammed Irfan killed a man lying drunk in the street after running over him and dragging him almost 30 metres under his car.
Irfan lost his concentration when talking to his back seat passenger and failed to see Shaun Hodgkinson had collapsed in High Street, Sandyford.
He ran over the 26-year-old father-of-two causing fatal injuries.
Now Irfan has been handed a 24-week prison sentence, suspended for two years, with a five-month curfew from 8pm to 6am.
Prosecutor David Bennett told Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court Mr Hodgkinson, of Hollywall Lane, Sandyford, had been out with friends in Hanley, before setting off home at 4am on October 27.
He got out of a taxi about 200 metres from the Kentucky Fried Chicken roundabout.
Minutes later, Irfan, who was taking a woman home in his Toyota Avensis taxi, failed to see Mr Hodgkinson in the road and ran him over.
Mr Bennett said: "There was a conversation between the defendant and the rear passenger.
"At times she leant into the gap between the seating. She described him as twisting in his seat to speak to her over his left shoulder.
"Immediately after the roundabout near KFC she noticed something and realised it was a person lying motionless in the road. She assumed the defendant would stop but he carried on, running over Mr Hodgkinson. The taxi shuddered.
"He brought his taxi to a stop. He got out and had a look but got back in and said he could not see anything. She suggested he looked under the vehicle. He did and saw someone trapped under his car."
Mr Hodgkinson suffered a fractured skull, ruptured heart, punctured lungs and ruptured liver. He was pronounced dead at 4.52am.
He had been dragged for 28 metres from the point of collision.
Irfan, aged 42, of Leek New Road, Cobridge, pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving.
Ahmed Nadim, mitigating, said it was a 'catastrophic tragedy'.
He said Irfan wished it was his life that had been 'extinguished' instead of Mr Hodgkinson's.
But Mr Nadim added: "It was a momentary lapse. If his liberty must be denied it can be denied in the context of a curfew."
Irfan was banned from driving for two years and until he passes an extended test. He must also pay £300 costs.
Recorder Christopher Goodchild said: "You caused the death of a person by reason of careless driving by a lapse of concentration. This was not a case of a man driving at high speed, or under the influence of alcohol, or without the lights on. What it was, was an ordinary working man like you momentarily lapsing. But that lapse killed a man.
"I must take account that he should not have been where he was and he bears that responsibility."
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