A father who panicked and drove off after being involved in a fatal accident with a teenage cyclist has been jailed for six months.

In sentencing Robert Lawrence, a judge stressed he was "in no way to blame" for the death of 14-year-old Kyle Coen.

Lawrence, of Railway Cottages, Barrow Green, Teynham, was being punished for perverting the course of justice by lying to the police that his car had been stolen and failing to stop after an accident.

He was also banned from driving for 12 months.

Maidstone Crown Court heard popular Sittingbourne Community College pupil Kyle (pictured right) was cycling on the A2 in London Road towards Teynham with a friend just after 9pm on July 30 last year.

John Keal, prosecuting, said Kyle went to the centre of the road to turn right and was struck by Lawrence's Fiat Bravo travelling in the same direction by Bapchild cricket ground.

"Kyle died shortly afterwards as a result of the injuries he sustained," he said. "There has never been any charge in relation to Mr Lawrence's driving - simply that the collision occurred and death resulted.

"He then drove off without stopping. Fortunately, or more by luck than judgement, emergency services were contacted shortly afterwards, albeit not by Mr Lawrence himself.

"An ambulance crew attended and a member of the public performed CPR, in vain."

Floral tributes left at the scene where Kyle Coen was knocked down on the A2 London Road, Bapchild

Mr Keal said it was not until 9.40pm that Lawrence, 24, spoke to the police. He then made up an elaborate story about his car being stolen after he stopped to relieve himself in bushes.

He claimed he phoned his primary schoolteacher girlfriend and they found the car. He complained: "They smashed my car up and everything." He continued the lie when officers arrived on the scene.

He was arrested just before 10.45pm on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and it was then he admitted he was driving at the time.

"I just panicked," he said. He maintained he was alone in the car but when CCTV showed there was a passenger he admitted it was his sister.

Mr Keal said Lawrence, who has a 19-month-old boy, had a conviction in 2008 for drink-driving. He also had a conviction for criminal damage in 2009.

Judge Philip St John-Stevens told Lawrence, who admitted the offences: "The circumstances surrounding this case are tragic.

"I pass a sentence that reflects your offending from the moment you drove off until the moment one-and-a-half hours later when you accepted you were the driver."

Judge St John-Stevens (pictured right) said it would never be known why Kyle swerved or pulled in front of Lawrence’s car, but the circumstances were tragic.

"What must be understood by anybody listening to my remarks is that you are in no way to blame for the accident, which indeed was an accident in the true sense of the word," he told Lawrence.

"You fall to be sentenced for your criminal acts from the moment you vehicle strikes that cyclist and thereafter, and not the cause of the collision.

"You realised your car had collided with the cyclist but rather than stopping to see what the consequences were and calling an ambulance, you continued your journey, not reflecting on what had been caused and the tragic consequences."

It was not until he was confronted by the police that he revealed the truth.

"From everything I have read, you are a family man and this has had a profound effect upon you. There is, in my judgement, genuine remorse for what you did.

"You clearly were in shock and panicked. I accept when you gave the lies to the police you did not appreciate the consequences of your collision."

The judge added: "I repeat you do not fall to be sentenced for any act that caused the tragic death of Kyle Coen, but your actions after.

"I have anxiously considered whether it would be right to suspend the sentence. In my judgement, it would not."