A FORMER police officer who killed an Urmston man and left his wife confined to a wheeelchair after ploughing into them, has been jailed for four years.

Mohammed Mian had pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving at Minshull Street Crown Court at an earlier hearing.

Company director Steve Campbell, 49, died at the scene of the collision which happened on Stretford Road, Urmston shortly before 1.20am on New Year's Day.

Steve took the full force of the impact as he tried to warn his wife Rosemary, 53, of the impending disaster and suffered multiple fatal injuries.

As the devoted couple lay stricken in the street the driver, ex-police patrolman Mian, 31, sped off only to have a pang of conscience and he returned to the scene.

Inquiries revealed in the minutes before the deadly impact Mian had been talking on his mobile phone while driving.

After Mian, of Stanley Road, Whalley Range, was jailed, Rosemary and Steve's daughter, Hayley, 25, hit out at the legal system.

"Four years was the best sentence we could have hoped for but we think this man should have been tried as a murderer and given life in jail,'' she said.

''It's a crime to take someone's life and he killed my father and badly injured my mother and for us it was tantamount to murder. We have been made to serve a life sentence yet he gets four years.

"I didn't really look at Mohammed Mian today, but when his defence advocate was speaking I felt anger and frustration about the picture that was painted of him as being a very positive person.

''He's shown no remorse, it's disgusting what he's done. He has completely destroyed our family and will never know the kind of pain and suffering that we have all had to endure, and will continue to endure for many years to come.

"Mian's blatant lack of remorse for such an atrocious and horrendous crime is sickening, and he should be made to realise that not only has he killed a man, but he has also disabled another person, and enforced a life sentence of pain, suffering and misery on us all.''

Steve and Rosemary, who were married for 25 years and had two children, were walking home from a party after dropping off her elderly mother when the accident happened..

Ex-PC Mian who served with the Metropolitan Police had been driving at up to 60mph after finishing his shift as a doorman at a bar when he bore down on the couple as they crossed the road near their home.

Mr Justin Hayhoe, prosecuting, said Mr Campbell, who ran a printing company, said to his wife "Rose, a car" just a split second before the pair were hit by Mian in his 2.3 turbo Volvo estate car.

Rosemary was thrown 14 metres on impact while her husband was propelled a further 30 metres. His right leg was torn off by the force of the impact and smashed into an upstairs window of a nearby house. He died at the scene.

A witness said he saw no brake lights, and no evidence of Mian swerving as he drove away from the scene. Mian eventually turned round and returned to the scene, calling 999 as he did so.

Rosemary, was in a coma for six days and in hospital for six weeks after shattering her pelvis and having her left leg amputated.

She now requires constant care, and suffers from "mental torment" as well as continued pain. Doctors gave her a 20 per cent chance of living.

Mian, of Gredle Close, Urmston, later told police he had ''put his foot down'' but had not seen the Campbells.

In a victim impact statement read to the court, Rosemary described Steve as the "heart of her life."

In mitigation, defence counsel Mr Andrew Keogh said his client "bitterly and wholly regretted his actions" and could not explain why he had driven as he did.

Mr Keogh added, "He is not someone who has an arrogant disregard for the tragedy that he has left behind."

Mian, who admitted causing death by dangerous driving, was also disqualified from driving for five years.

Passing sentence Judge Bernard Lever told Mian: "I know that no sentence that this court could pass would in any way repair the hurt which has been caused to the deceased family."