A SPEEDING driver who was "showing off" when he crashed his car and killed a friend has been jailed for three years four months.

Neil Mayhead was told by a judge that it was "an appalling piece of driving over a sustained period".

He added: "It is a common feature of these kinds of cases that the defendant had absolutely no intention of causing any harm to anyone.

"It is a common feature that he is a person of previous good character and a common feature that there is no likelihood of any kind of re-offending."

But Judge Jeremy Carey said a prison sentence had to be imposed not only as punishment, but as a deterrent and to mark the abhorrence of such criminal driving.

Mayhead, 30, of Mossy Glade, Gillingham, admitted causing death by dangerous driving.

Maidstone Crown Court heard that he and a group of friends, including the victim Dominic Neff, had been to The Bell pub in Bredhurst, near Rainham, on November 3 2005.

They left just after 11pm. Mr Neff, who was aged 20, was one of four people being given a lift in Mayhead’s MG Rover car.

Driving behind him with three passengers in his Lexus car was Samuel Bray, of Marshall Road, Gillingham.

Mr Bray, 21, was also accused of causing death by dangerous driving after it was alleged that he and Mayhead were racing after leaving the pub. But he was cleared by a jury last week.

Mayhead’s car veered off a bend in Maidstone Road in Rainham and smashed into garden fences, walls and a lamp post.

Mr Neff, of Edwin Road, Rainham, suffered multiple injuries when the car split open on hitting a tree. He was pulled underneath the car.

Mayhead was also disqualfied for five years.