A DRUGGED-UP driver has been jailed for more than six years for killing a cyclist on the A814 near Cardross.

Scott McKinnon was locked up at the High Court in Edinburgh on Thursday.

He had previously admitted driving dangerously while unfit through drugs.

The 47-year-old's vehicle swerved onto the opposing carriageway on a straight section of road before colliding with the bike of Dumbarton man Colin McCourt, who was cycling home from work.

Mr McCourt, 40, was thrown from the bike and landed on a pavement and died at the scene on the A814 road, at Cardross.

Mackinnon was later found to have five different drugs in his system, including morphine and Etizolam, sometimes known as street valium.

Read more: Scott MacKinnon: Helensburgh driver admits killing cyclist

A judge told Mackinnon: "Custody is the only appropriate disposal, having regard to the serious nature of your offending."

Judge Alison Stirling said in jailing him: "The reasons for this sentence include punishment, protection of the public and rehabilitation in a custodial setting."

The judge pointed out that Mackinnon, formerly of East King Street, Helensburgh, had numerous previous convictions for road traffic offences and two linked to drugs.

She said that Mr McCourt, who was returning to Dumbarton from his job as a mechanical engineer at the Clyde naval base at Faslane, was "highly visible" on his bike at the time of the collision on November 10, 2020.

Mackinnon's VW Golf partially mounted a footpath before striking Mr McCourt's bike. His vehicle also struck another car before the Golf overturned and landed on its roof.

A previous hearing was told that Mackinnon had got out of his car after the crash claiming he was "fine" and told a police officer: "My glasses are too loose, so I had bobbles holding them on. They must have fell off my face."

He was described as having "slurred" speech and being incoherent and appeared to fall asleep on the way to a police station.

He was found to have "unquantified concentrations" of drugs in his bloodstream.

Mr McCourt suffered serious head and chest injuries in the fatal collision.

Mackinnon had earlier admitted causing his death by driving dangerously while unfit through drugs, by going into the path of oncoming traffic and failing to take corrective or evasive action to avoid a collision.

He was jailed for six years and nine months and banned from driving for 12 years and four months.

In a statement released through solicitors Digby Brown after Mackinnon's conviction, Colin’s family said: “The loss of Colin is something we will never truly come to terms with.

“He was a very special person to all who knew and loved him and we miss him every day.

“This conviction is welcome and we now hope the sentencing will reflect our trauma and loss while also serving us an example to make our roads safer because we don’t want other families to ever experience something like this.

“We’d like to thank loved ones, friends, those who shared happy memories of Colin with us and the wider community for their support but now request our privacy is respected as we try to move forwards.”