by Keith Hunt

A woman driver who caused the death of a teenage passenger after "showing off" by hurtling along roads doing handbrake turns has been locked up for five years.

The youth custody sentence was imposed on Charlene Arnold amid emotional scenes following a jury's unanimous guilty verdict on a charge of causing death by dangerous driving.

The 20-year-old receptionist and cashier, of Lower Road, West Farleigh, Maidstone, denied the charge, claiming a fox had run out in front of her, causing her to lose control of her Ford Fiesta.

Maidstone Crown Court heard she crashed into a skip on Aylesford industrial estate on May 6 last year, killing back seat passenger Samantha Cundall, 16, from Tovil.

Judge Martin Joy told Arnold she had been convicted on overwhelming and compelling evidence.

It was clear, he said, she had used her car "as a toy with which to play dangerous games, endangering the lives of those in the car, as well as other road users and pedestrians". He added: "It is only by good fortune that other deaths were prevented."