A lorry driver who caused a mother-of-two's death when he attempted a "dangerous" overtaking manoeuvre won a cut in his "manifestly excessive" jail term.

Wayne Frank Eccleston, of Halstead Terrace, Settle, pleaded guilty at Bradford Crown Court in September last year to causing the death of 32-year-old Stephanie Welsh by dangerous driving.

He was later jailed for three-and-a-half years and disqualified from driving for four years.

Yesterday at London's Court of Appeal his legal team challenged his sentence as "manifestly excessive", barrister Anne Whyte arguing he had got too long, given his guilty plea.

She added that 23-year-old Eccleston was deeply sorry for what had happened and had given up driving between the crash and the court case.

After listening to legal argument, Mr Justice Crane, sitting with Lord Justice Rose and Mrs Justice Rafferty, said that, on the basis of his sentence, Eccleston would have been in line for a five-year jail term had he not pleaded guilty, and that was too long.

But, in reducing the jail term to two-and-a-half years, the judge rejected arguments made by Miss Whyte that a two-year sentence was the longest he should have got.

The court heard Eccleston, who had been convicted of a drink driving offence on the same road in 2001, was behind the wheel of a lorry on the A65 at Draughton, near Skipton, on January 20, 2005 on a wet day where visibility was not good.

Mr Justice Crane said he was driving around 50mph - some 10mph above the 40mph speed limit - and crashed into the car Mrs Welsh was driving as he carried out a "dangerous" overtaking manoeuvre.

Mrs Welsh was travelling in the same direction, but had slowed down to make a right hand turn, and it was only when it was too late that Eccleston realised he was going to hit her car.

The judge added that the loss of Mrs Welsh, of Silsden, whose children were nine years old and 14 years old, had deeply affected her family and her husband had made a moving victim impact statement.