A POST office worker drove over a man who a witness mistakenly thought was a discarded black bin bag.

William Hicks, 39, struck Brian Shields who was lying on the road having earlier fallen off his bike.

Mr Shields ended up in hospital for three weeks after suffering a serious back injury.

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Hicks has been fined £715 after he admitted to careless driving in connection with the incident in Glasgow's Fulton Street in Anniesland on February 6 2019.

Hicks was on his way to work in his black Volvo at the time.

Prosecutor Mark Allan told Glasgow Sheriff Court: “He failed to see Mr Shields lying on the road and drove over him.

“Mr Shield’s body passed underneath Hicks' car. He then stopped after the collision.”

Hicks alerted police before the victim - who had been drinking that day - was taken to hospital.

Mr Allan said: “He sustained a number of fractures on his vertebrae, bruised ribs and cuts and was released from hospital after 20 days.

The court was told Hicks, of the city's Knightswood, was a first offender.

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His lawyer Paul Nelson said: "The driver on the opposite side of the road suspected Mr Shields was a black bin bag, but it turned out to be a person.

"No one thought that it was a human being."

Sheriff Alan MacKenzie also put eight points on Hicks' licence.

He told him: “There was someone on the road and you drove over that person.

“I recognise that it was not obvious to you or anyone there that day that he was a human being.”