A DRIVER who had been on a pub crawl when he knocked down and killed an elderly pedestrian is facing jail.

Steven Waterman was given the warning after being convicted on Friday of causing death by dangerous driving. His passenger Sean Turner, who “yanked” on the handbrake shortly before the accident, was cleared of causing danger to road users by interfering with a vehicle.

Maidstone Crown Court heard that Waterman only held a provisional licence and was more than two and a half times the legal alcohol limit when the tragedy happened.

Victim Bob Morris, 74, had been playing bowls and was just a few steps from his home in Benenden Road, Wainscott, when he was mown down on November 19 2002.

Waterman, then 19, and Turner had been on what the prosecution described as "a motorised pub crawl". They left the last bar in Waterman's Vauxhall Nova at about 10.40pm and drove along winding Benenden Road.

Anthony Haycroft, prosecuting, said Waterman lost control, probably because he was driving too fast. He braked, the wheels locked and the car skidded. It was at that moment that Turner grabbed the handbrake. The backend of the car twisted and Mr Morris was struck. The car somersaulted into a garden and demolished a wall.

Mr Morris had just been dropped off by his bowling friend, Kenneth Gibbons, of nearby Cypress Road. He was taken to Medway Hospital where he died from multiple injuries, including spine and rib fractures and internal damage.

Waterman, of Iden Road, Frindsbury, admitted causing death by careless driving while under the influence of drink but denied causing death by dangerous driving. He did not give evidence.

Turner, of Grassmere Grove, Frindsbury, denied the charge against him, claiming that he pulled on the brake because he believed there was no other option. The 27-year-old retail manager for a Maidstone hi-fi company told the jury that he thought it might make the car stop more quickly and take them out of the skid.

He said: “I didn’t really think about the outcome of what it might make the car do. I grabbed for whatever I could to try and end the situation. I was scared.“

Turner added that he was under the impression that Waterman had passed his driving test and he had been driving confidently.

Waterman, he said, had been friends with his younger brother, who was killed in an accident in Spain in 2001. Mr Haycroft said Waterman, now 21, had no previous convictions, but there were three cautions on his record.

Fiona Rowling, defending, said her client had always felt remorse for what happened and had written a letter to the victim’s family.

Adjourning sentence until May 28 and granting bail, Mr Justice Harrison said: “He now should be under no illusions that he faces a substantial prison sentence.”