The car driver who in the summer of 2016 struck fatally a bicyclist and left the place of the accident being inebriated was sentenced to five years and six months in jail. He was also banned from driving for a period of five years. Earlier, he got a milder sentence of four years and three months, but the prosecutors challenged it, IPN reports.

According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, the accident happened in the morning of July 23, 2016 on a central street of Căușeni town. The culprit, who was driving in an advanced state of inebriation, tried to overtake a car and hit mortally a bicyclist coming from the opposite direction.

The victim was 61 years and was heading for his orchard.

The hit-and-run driver was identified shortly afterward. The man took a breath test that showed a concentration of alcohol of 0.72 mg/l in the exhaled air.

To hush up the case and get rid of punishment, the man said the car at that moment was driven by his minor brother, whom he forced to confess to striking the bicyclist.

The sentence can be appealed to the Supreme Court of Justice.