A DRIVER who failed to stop after his car struck a man lying in a roadway thought he had hit a bag of sticks, a court was told.

Craig Jones died in hospital in Swansea shortly after being found with massive internal injuries in a lane in Ystradgynlais on December 2.

The driver of a car that had driven over him, 21-year-old David Usher, was arrested two days later.

"He was scared to report it — the enormity of the situation was too much for him," said his solicitor, Owain Jones. He told Brecon Magistrates that when the details of Mr Jones's death became known, Usher had been "running scared".

Usher, of Penybryn, Penrhos, Ystradgynlais, admitted careless driving, using a car without insurance, failing to stop after an accident and failing to report an accident.

The court heard from prosecutor Rhian Millidge how 25-year-old father-of-one Mr Jones, of Maes y Dre, Ystradgynlais had set out to walk home after a night out at the All Blacks Arms in Ystradgynlais.

He left at about midnight, intending to walk home via Home Farm Lane, a narrow, unlit, single-track road. Two men who drove through the lane saw him on his hands and knees and stopped to speak to him. Usher drove up behind them and shouted to them to move their car. The men drove off, followed by Usher.

The two men later drove back through the lane and again saw Mr Jones on his hands and knees.

They told him to get up or he could be run over. Mr Jones got up and began walking and they drove off. Another driver stopped after seeing him lying motionless in the road. He reversed his car up the lane and then saw Usher's car come through the lane. The driver checked and saw Mr Jones lying seriously injured in the lane. He alerted police, who identified the model of car by debris found at the scene and put out a public appeal to locate it.

The prosecutor said Usher returned the car to the woman who had allowed him to use it.

She noted there was something mechanically wrong and he said he might have run over a bag of sticks.

She became aware that police were looking for a car like hers and she confronted Usher, who denied any involvement. She contacted police and Usher was arrested.The prosecutor said Usher accepted he had been driving the car at the time and had clearly run over Mr Jones.

When interviewed, Usher told police he had thought it might have been a sheep that he struck, but it could have been a person.

The court was told that Usher, a sports science student at a Brecon college, had been given a suspended prison term in the summer for passing counterfeit notes. Usher's solicitor said of the incident involving Mr Jones: "I would submit it was not intended and it was accidental, and that is reflected in the charge."

The lane is narrow, visibility was low and Usher had suffered " a momentary lapse", he said.

"Unfortunately and regrettably, on that night Craig was wearing dark clothing and lying on that street," he said.

"My client did lack care and attention and was speculating until the moment in the police station as to what had happened."

Family impact statements were read to the court. Speaking of her anguish, Mr Jones's mother, Katrina Jones, said "If these were decent people who tried to help or admitted what they had done, I may have been able to come to terms with my loss."

Colin Jones said his son had served for three years in the Royal Welch Fusiliers and had gone on to secure a good job in Pontardawe.

Sentence on Usher was adjourned to November 27 for the preparation of a pre-sentence report.

In bailing Usher, the magistrates noted their sentencing options ranged from a community penalty to 26 weeks' custody.