A motorist who killed a pensioner after losing control of a BMW car has had his driving ban lifted.

Luke Godden, 28, was jailed for four years in 2004 when he was convicted of causing the death of 83-year-old Leonard Shipp by dangerous driving.

Mr Shipp, a retired security officer from Gillingham, was in the passenger seat of his son Paul’s Vauxhall Cavalier when it was struck by a BMW Z3 driven by Godden.

The car, owned by Godden’s boss at the time, was described by a witness during his trial at Maidstone Crown Court as racing with a van just minutes before it spun across the central reservation of the A289 Hoath Way in Gillingham on December 16 2002.

Godden, then of Bond Road, Gillingham, denied racing or overtaking the van on the inside. He claimed he was not travelling above 50mph and the BMW went into a spin and out of control after he braked.

But he was found guilty by a jury and jailed in July 2004. Godden, a car salesman at the time, was also made subject to a five-year driving ban.

Today he successfully applied at Maidstone Crown Court for the disqualification to be lifted so he can take up further job opportunities.

Judge James O’Mahony ordered, however, that the ban will remain in place until Godden has resat a driving test.

The judge said he had regard to the “continuing effect” on Mr Shipp’s family and that any application should not be granted “lightly”.

However, he said he believed Godden had rehabiliated himself. “The medicine has had the effect and he has served a considerable period of the disqualification and he now has an opportunity to better his circumstances.”

It was not said in court what work Godden is now carrying out.

Godden said his application for the driving ban to be removed was made on the basis that he was in line for promotion and also had better job offers.

When asked what effect the four-year sentence had had on his attitude towards driving, Godden replied: “I tell everyone to be very, very careful and if I’m picked up during my job by younger people I try to advise them of what can happen through a split second of stupidity.”

Of his time in jail he added: “I tried to become a model prisoner and recognised what I did was very, very wrong.”