A BOROUGH man who killed one of his best friends in a crash caused because he was on his mobile phone has been spared jail.

Paul Shrubsole, 60, struck former lecturer Julian Wiseman, 57, with his Nissan Qashqai on the M74 near Lesmahagow, South Lanarkshire, in July 2021 when both were part of a group enjoying a biking holiday.

He was driving a support vehicle which also hit his friend Paul Allum's motorbike and left him with life-changing injuries.

Shrubsole will have to carry out a two-year community payback order and was sentenced to 300 hours of unpaid work. He has been banned from driving for five years, though his defence cousel told the court he had no interest in ever driving again.

The judge, Lord Arthurson, said there was "no public interest" in sending him to prison as he was one of the most "broken" people he had seen in the dock.

Lord Arthurson added: "Mr Shrubsole, if I may speak candidly to you at this point, you should regard this sentence today as an opportunity.

"As your friends and victims in this tragic case cannot, you have before you a chance to begin your life anew, the life that, as I and others have observed you, in effect stopped on the M74 at around 1.30pm on 24 July 2021. 

"I suggest that you should dedicate the years of this order to serving others and rehabilitating yourself, above and beyond the bare conditional terms and time-frames which I have expressed in court and which you will see for yourself in due course in a document which will be served upon you later today. 

"How you approach this sentence is a matter for you, but I am telling you that the opportunity is there, is real and should be grasped by you."

The full text of Judge Lord Arthurson's comments can be read via this link.

The crash happened while Shrubsole was on holiday in Scotland with Mr Wiseman and Mr Allum, who had been his friends for 40 years.

The High Court in Glasgow heard Shrubsole, used his hands-free mobile device to make a call moments before the fatal collision.

Last month, a jury convicted him of causing the death of Mr Wiseman by careless driving.

The group had been driving in a convoy from England to Scotland on a trip, and Mr Wiseman and Mr Allum had driven ahead of Shrubsole's Qashqai.

Jurors heard Shrubsole was distracted and failed to react in time to the road ahead.

Tony Graham KC, defending, had asked Lord Arthurson not to send Shrubsole to prison.

Lord Arthurson said: "I have read a moving impact statement prepared by Mr Wiseman's fiance and son. He was a rare and wholly genuine life force.

"Mr Allum also wrote an emotional statement and the judge said he was now paraplegic but was coping with "remarkable fortitude"."

The judge told Shrubsole: "As I observed you in the dock. Rarely have I seen such a broken individual in the courtroom.

"Your remorse is genuine and profound. There is no public benefit in sending you to prison.

"You are serving your own indefinite sentence of grief and remorse."

Shrubsole, a former accountant and Mr Wiseman had previously set up Grays Athletic walking football team together.

Mr Wiseman had recovered from cancer just before the collision.

Tributes to Mr Wiseman: https://thurrock.nub.news/news/tributes/tribute-to-a-39kind-caring-compassionate39-man-who-was-much-loved