Farmer George Withers has been ordered to pay nearly £13,000 after mud he left on the road led to the death of kebab shop owner Mesut Kayran.

Withers, 38, of Little Lype House, Charlton, near Malmesbury, was told the carriageway was like “compacted snow” when drizzle started to fall on the mud.

Just hours after the farmer thought he had cleared the mud, a number of accidents took place, including the fatal one.

Mr Kayran, 28, of Swindon, was driving to Malmesbury when he lost control of his Vauxhall Astra on the B4014 at Sunset Hill.

As he came round a left hand bend, the car hit the 300 metre patch of dirt and the wheels locked when he applied the brakes. The vehicle hit the opposite verge and a tree before rolling onto to the carriageway and striking a car coming the other way.

A judge at Swindon Crown Court heard on Tuesday Mr Kayran, who co-owned Malmesbury Pizza and Kebab House, probably suffered fatal head injuries when the car rolled on its roof.

Nigel Fryer, prosecuting, said the accident happened at about 8.40pm on October 23, 2008.

Two hours earlier a woman in an Audi A3 had lost control and ended up in a ditch on the same stretch of road.

An hour previously, another motorist had called the police after sliding on mud.

The court was told how that morning Withers had been harvesting maize from a field adjacent to the road.

He had used a vehicle with a mechanical bucket to scrape mud off the road but did not think it necessary to wash the surface, which could easily have been done.

Mr Fryer said that signs were partly obscured by undergrowth and were “almost worthless in the hours of darkness”.

Withers admitted failing to ensure the safety of other road users by leaving mud on the road with inadequate signage.

He was fined £11,250 with £1,500 costs. Judge Euan Ambrose said that a fine was the only penalty available to the court.

After the case Withers said: “I am very sorry it ended this way for the family.”