A HAMILTON man who killed a 48-year-old man after driving over him nearly two years ago, was sentenced to three and a half years imprisonment on Thursday.

Dale Kennett, 54, appeared at the Warrnambool County Court on Thursday morning where he was sentenced for one charge of dangerous driving causing death, which a jury found him guilty of on August 12, 2021, but not guilty of failing to stop and render assistance.

The court heard on the night between March 9-10, 2020, Kennett had been at the home of a friend at Henry Court, Hamilton, when he decided to sleep in his car which was parked on the front lawn of a property on that street.

At 2.45am, Jason Young, 48, and a friend, returned to Henry Court in a taxi, where for unknown reasons Mr Young then laid on the ground near the driveway.

Kennett was asleep in the driver’s seat when Mr Young’s friend approached his car and began banging on the vehicle’s windows and bonnet, which caused Kennett to wake up and reverse out of the driveway, running over Mr Young, before accelerating up the street at a pace that left tyre marks on the road.

Mr Young sustained multiple fatal injuries from the accident that led to his death.

When speaking with police, Kennett said he thought he had run over a wheelie bin and had not seen Mr Young laying on the ground.

The court heard at the time of the incident, Kennett was on a community corrections order and had drugs, including methamphetamine, in his system.

The windows in his car were also fogged up, and he had one working headlight.

A victim impact statement from the family of Mr Young was provided to the court with an excerpt saying, “all we want for our son is some peace and the justice he deserves”.

The court heard Kennett’s upbringing involved trauma and abuse that had a profound impact on his life, which led to him beginning cannabis use in primary school, and methamphetamine in high school.

It was also said he suffers from multiple physical and mental health issues and had previously been involved in dishonesty, drug related offending, and minor driving offenses.

As part of his CCO, Kennett had engaged in drug and alcohol programs and had been drug free since December 2020.

Judge Fran Dalziel said Kennett should not have been driving at all with an inoperative headlight and illicit drugs in his blood.

“Your decision to accelerate away when you could not see clearly was obviously dangerous and presented a significant risk of injury or death to the people in the vicinity,” she said.

“You accelerated at a sufficient rate to leave tyre marks on the road.”

She said Kennett being drug free for so long was a “very positive step” towards his future, however, there was “a real possibility of relapse”.

Kennett had already served 284 days in custody which would be entered on the court records.

Ms Dalziel sentenced Kennett to three and a half years imprisonment with a non-parole period of two and a half years, and disqualified his driver’s licence for 18 months.