‘As she drove slowly into the garage, she didn’t see Mrs Wareham, who was walking quite normally with her dog.

‘She was driving at such a speed that she would have been able to stop had she seen her, perhaps making this all the more tragic.’

Mr Harrington said Barwick, who was 94 at the time of the collision, had an ‘unblemished’ driving record but said Mrs Wareham was a vulnerable road user who had right of way.

Defending, Paul Lewis said Barwick had ‘genuine remorse’ for what had happened and had surrendered her driving licence following the fatal collision.

He urged Judge Michael Chambers KC to suspend any custodial sentence, saying imprisonment would reduce her life expectancy to months.

He said: ‘Her remorse is genuine and is sincere. She admitted her wrongdoing at the earliest opportunity.

‘She does not in any way seek to excuse what took place.

‘She continues to suffer the consequences of what she has done.’

He added: ‘Mrs Barwick accepts she was not paying proper attention… There are clearly no winners here.

‘It is a terribly tragic set of circumstances.’

In a victim impact statement, Mrs Wareham’s husband Peter said the couple had met at the age of 15 and had shared 60 years of life together but he had now been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

He said: ‘She was caring and selfless… She was good fun and independent.

‘She enjoyed a life of good health.

‘All that ended on April 18 when my wife was cruelly taken.’

Mrs Wareham’s daughter Joanne Willetts said her mother was her ‘unfaltering constant’.