A DRIVER who caused the death of his pregnant fiancée's father when he lost control of a car and collided with a roadside tree has had his prison sentence cut on appeal.

Michael Legg was jailed for three years and four months at Southampton Crown Court in October last year after admitting causing Alan Haywood's death by careless driving while over the legal alcohol limit.

He was also banned from the road for four years.

But judges at London's Criminal Appeal Court cut Legg's sentence to two years and eight months, claiming the trial judge had adopted "too high a starting-point" when sentencing him.

Legg, of Chippenham, Wiltshire, who had been living with Mr Haywood, his wife Pauline and their daughter Annabelle at their home in Waverley Road, Fordingbridge, was one and a half times the legal drink drive limit at the time.

He lost control of his green VW Golf on a bend as the pair travelled home from Southampton to Fordingbridge at around midnight on January 6 last year.

They had stopped in at least one public house before travelling on to a Bursledon convenience store where Legg bought food and cider.

Neither Mr Haywood, 48, or Legg, 28, were wearing a seat belt and both were thrown from the vehicle in the crash.

Although there were no witnesses to the collision, London's Criminal Appeal Court heard accident investigators judged that the car left the road after Legg lost control of the vehicle, colliding with a tree.

It came to rest on its roof on a barbed wire fence and wall.

Mr Haywood was catapulted from the car by the impact of the collision, dying at the scene.

Judge Peter Beaumont QC - sitting at the Appeal Court with Lord Justice Richards and Mr Justice Burton - said Legg also sustained devastating injuries in the crash, including a fractured spine and ribs, and damage to his head and liver.

Legg has since expressed profound remorse for his actions.

Judge Beaumont added that Legg's fiancée, who has now given birth to their child, had written to the court urging the appeal judges to show clemency in his case.

He concluded that the trial judge had adopted "too high a starting-point" when sentencing Legg - and reduced his sentence to two years and eight months.