A motorist has been fined $2,000 and banned from driving for two years for causing grievous bodily harm to a motorcyclist by careless driving.

Duncan Henderson, 41, of Marley Beach Drive, Warwick, had originally pleaded not guilty to the charge and requested a Supreme Court trial.

But in Magistrates’ Court yesterday, Henderson changed his plea, admitting that by disobeying a traffic sign while driving his car he caused an accident that left motorcyclist Vernon Charles with a broken left collar bone and a fractured left rib.

Prosecutor Susan Mulligan said the accident took place at about 12.30pm on November 9 last year. Henderson was driving out of Marley Beach Drive and turned right onto South Road, disobeying a traffic sign indicating no right turns.

As a result, Mr Charles’s bike crashed into Henderson’s car.

Lawyer Peter Sanderson, mitigating, said other residents of Marley Beach Drive regularly took right turns out of the road and a mirror had been installed to help them do so, even though right turns were not allowed.

Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner dismissed that claim, imposing the fine and the 24-month ban on driving any vehicle.