A DRIVER with deteriorating eyesight knocked down a four-year-old child in a hit and run incident.

Pizza shop worker Behzad Beigy was behind the wheel when he struck the young girl while driving down Denzil Avenue, in Bevois, on July 27.

Unaware of the collision, which broke the girl’s leg, he continued driving.

But the 45-year-old was stopped by a member of the public, who followed him in his car.

Beigy later handed himself into police after reading about the incident in the Daily Echo.

Southampton Magistrates’ Court heard that Beigy had been out giving the silver Ford Focus a test run for a friend of his when he drove along the road in the early evening.

Prosecutor Graham Heath told the court that the girl was holding her mother’s hand as they looked to cross the road before she was struck.

He said: “A member of the public who pursued Beigy after the incident said the car was travelling at some speed and that it was swerving.”

Beigy, who used to work for eyesight specialists CooperVision, did not realise he had hit the girl and drove off until he was brought to a stop by the other driver.

The court heard that Beigy, now working at Smokey Pizza in Portswood, was a man of previous good character and had deteriorating eyesight.

Mitigating, Janet Brownlow told the court that Beigy was “ashamed” of his actions but believed he was insured on his own car insurance to drive the motor vehicle.

Beigy, of Portswood Road, Southampton, pleaded guilty to failing to stop after a road accident, driving without insurance, failing to report an accident and driving without due care and attention.

He was sentenced to eight weeks imprisonment, suspended for a year, ordered to pay £350 compensation, £250 costs and £115 victim surcharge and disqualified from driving for 12 months.