A LORRY driver who was day dreaming and distracted by his personal computer when he ploughed into a car, killing two probation officers, was jailed for three-and-a-half years on Tuesday.

Johnny Vos wept at Maidstone Crown Court and said sorry to the victims' families in the public gallery as he was led away to start his sentence.

A jury took just over five-and-a-half hours on Monday to reach guilty verdicts by a 10-1 majority, one member having been discharged, on two charges of causing death by dangerous driving.

The 47-year-old Dutch driver smashed into the rear of a VW Golf in a queue of traffic on the M20 motorway near Ashford on December 21 2006. The car was crushed beyond recognition after being forced under a lorry in front carrying seven horses.

Driver Hazel Croucher, 48, of Dover, and passenger Kerry Sharpe, 47, of Folkestone, were killed instantly. They worked with sex offenders in their home towns and Canterbury.

Vos, of Axel, Zeeuws-Vlaanderen, in the south-west of the Netherlands, denied both charges. He was banned from driving for three years.

Mr Justice Bean told Vos, a diabetic, that it was not a momentary error of judgement, but he was distracted throughout a crucial 30 seconds before the collision. He said he was satisfied that Vos's admission he was day dreaming was the truth.