A DRIVER who claimed he was “blacked out” behind the wheel when his car hit and killed a grandmother on a Glasgow crossing today begins a prison sentence.

Businessman Vincent Friel was sentenced to three years behind bars for causing the death of Carol Collins, 68, and seriously injuring her 69-year-old cousin Margaret Haldane.

The women were crossing the road near Silverburn shopping centre in Pollok when Friel’s black Range Rover moved slowly through a red light and hit them both.

Friel, 44, claimed that he suffered a vasovagal syncope or faint behind the wheel of the 4x4 - the same condition which caused bin lorry crash driver Harry Clarke to black out killing six in Glasgow city centre.

But this defence was rejected by a jury who convicted him of causing death and serious injury by dangerous driving at the High Court in Edinburgh last month.

Sentencing Friel, at the High Court in Glasgow yesterday, Judge Morris said the self employed letting agent was a “normal respectable member of the community” until the accident.

He added: “I take into account the exceptionally slow speed the vehicle was travelling at at the time of the accident.

“That said, Mr Friel, the jury found you guilty of dangerous driving and I have to respect that verdict.”

He said Friel was ultimately in charge of the car which was, in this case, a “lethal weapon”.

The judge said he accepted comments from defence QC Edward Targowski that Friel was “devastated” about the result of the crash.

But Judge Morris added he had to consider the impact on Ms Collins’ grieving relatives and said: “No sentence will assuage the devastation felt by the family of the victim.”

He sentenced him to three years behind bars for both charges and banned him from driving for five years.

Friel, who runs a firm which employs 20 people, had been warned he was facing prison time and carried a black holdall into court.

He showed little emotion as the sentence was handed down and nodded at his relatives in the public gallery as he was led away by security officers.

Ms Collins, from Pollok, described as a “wonderful mother and grandmother”, suffered a head injury and died soon after being hit on the pedestrian crossing at Barrhead Road near Silverburn Shopping Centre on January 18, 2014.

Ms Haldane’s wrist was shattered in four places leaving her permanently disfigured.

A trial heard from witnesses at the scene of the crash - including one women who narrowly missed being hit by Friel’s car - and was shown harrowing CCTV footage of the impact.

It showed Ms Collins being pulled under the wheels of the car and trapped there until Friel reversed it.

Friel lodged a special defence of automatism in February last year - 13 months after the fatal crash.

The driver ,who has a history of high blood pressure, claimed that the medication he had been prescribed for “sex headaches” made his blood pressure to dip too low and this caused him to lose consciousness.

The jury heard he was already taking another form of blood pressure lowering medication at the time and had also been prescribed Viagra.

Two medical experts told the trial a faint behind the wheel was possible, but they could not make a definitive diagnosis.

Another witness, a cardiologist, told a jury he did not believe Friel had passed out.

The victims’ family, who sat through all the evidence, said after the guilty verdict that it had done little to ease the pain of their loss.

Ms Collins' three children said in a statement to the Evening Times: “We are still heartbroken by the loss of our wonderful mother and grandmother and the tragic circumstances surrounding her death.”

It added: “Our mum played a huge part in our lives and she is missed every single day.”