A bid by a newspaper and its readers to have a hit-and-run driver’s prison sentence go to the Court of Appeal has been turned down.

The Reading Post urged its readers to contact the Attorney General last month after 19-year-old Timon Douglin was given 39 months for mowing down and killing Ryan Batt, 28, last summer.

The paper carried instructions online and in print explaining the rules of lodging an appeal, along with the email address of Attorney General Baroness Scotland’s office.

But yesterday the Post had to inform readers that their appeals to have Douglin’s sentence reviewed had failed which attracted some barbed and disappointed comments from readers.

An email to campaigners said: “Having carefully reviewed the papers, the Solicitor General has concluded that if the sentence imposed on Timon Douglin was referred to the Court of Appeal, the Court would not increase the sentence. She has therefore decided not to refer the case to the Court of Appeal.”

Mr Batt was killed on 1 June last year while walking from along a pavement in the Whitley area of Reading.

Douglin said he was swerving to avoid a fox and denied knowing he had struck Mr Batt although this was later dismissed by the judge.

Douglin admitted causing death by dangerous driving and was given three years and three months in prison.