SIR - Keith Trobridge (T&A, November 10) rightly identifies a court's inaccurate application of criminal intent' in sentencing a truck-driver who, by inattention, caused a fatal consequence.

This was very similar to the Gary Hart case at Great Heck, when his driving error on the M62 led to two trains colliding, with loss of life.

However, our justice system is even more perverse than that.

This week, a woman who deliberately used her car to knock her ex-partner off his bicycle, then ran over him breaking his leg in three places, was sentenced to six months' jail (suspended) and a two-year driving ban.

Now, imagine I had used a cricket bat to smash someone's leg. I may get a prison sentence, but I am sure I would not be banned from holding a cricket bat for two years. But it's just the same.

The guilty woman had simply used a car as an offensive weapon - it was not a motoring offence and should not have attracted a driving ban.

A greater custodial sentence perhaps, but again our abysmal justice system fails to grasp the basics of an offence in reaching its sentencing conclusion.

Graham Hoyle, Kirkbourne Grove, Baildon