THE managing director of a York company has been disqualified from driving for six months and fined more than £3,000 after he knocked a cyclist over and fled the scene.

Dr Mohammed Saeedi, an academic with a PhD from the University of Sheffield who is developing his own search engine at his offices in Fulford, injured the cyclist outside York Station on June 6 last year.

Saeedi, 61, from Dalby Carr, Whenby, had pleaded not guilty to driving without due care and attention and leaving the scene of an accident. He told York Magistrates Court he dropped his wife off at the station so she could commute to Leeds and was waiting in busy traffic. He claimed the cyclist began arguing with him when he crossed his Audi’s path and was racially abused. The computer scientist said he left the scene to get away from the argument but returned minutes later and the cyclist had gone.

However, Neil Holdsworth, prosecuting, said Saeedi sparked the altercation by pulling into a yellow ‘no waiting’ box and he was not racially abused.

He said: “You have said you always drive gently, you’re a pacifist and you’re not aggressive. I’m suggesting on this occasion you were pulling out when it wasn’t safe to do so because there was a cyclist in the way. You were hurrying to get out and in doing so you did something that was dangerous to the cyclist.”A taxi driver positioned behind Saeedi also saw the crash unfold and followed him, urging the father-of-two to return to the scene. He followed him to make sure he went back to the station, but told the court he did not think he did because of the direction he went. Saeedi denied the prosecution’s take on events throughout the trial and maintained the cyclist had pushed his bike into the front of his car during their row. Chairman of the bench, Manju Barker, told Saeedi his explanation “doesn’t seem credible” and found him guilty of both charges. He was fined £3,145, including £1,200 for both careless driving and failing to stop, £625 costs and a £120 surcharge.