A learner driver was on bail for a serious case of dangerous driving with a young child in the car when he ran over a teenager who had fallen from his motorcycle and killed him, a court heard.

Cowardly James Dye then ran from the scene, disguising his appearance as he did so, and blamed others for taking his mother’s car he had been driving.

The 22-year-old father was today jailed for a total of three years – two years and four months for causing the death of Ismael Martinan-Brittain and eight months consecutive for the previous dangerous driving offence.

The maximum sentence for causing death by dangerous driving is five years imprisonment and two years for dangerous driving.

With time spent in custody, he will serve about 14 months before his release on licence. He will then be banned from driving for three years.

Judge Jeremy Carey, on his last day before retirement, said: “No sentence will restore him to his grieving family and no sentence will satisfy those who understandably feel indignation, if not downright anger.”

But he explained he had to pass sentence in accordance with the law and sentencing guidelines.

Maidstone Crown Court was packed with family and friends of the Spanish-born 19-year-old victim. The pals wore “Justice for Ismael” T-shirts before the hearing.

Dye, of Rainham Road, Gillingham, admitted causing death by careless driving, causing death while uninsured and having no licence, and dangerous driving, having no licence and insurance and failing to stop in the offences committed 11 days earlier.

He had taken his mother’s Ford Focus after arguing with her on Tuesday, January 2 and had friend Nathan Barron as a front seat passenger.

At about 5pm, Ismael, of St Mary’s Island, lost control of his motorbike on the wet road as he emerged from Heron Way into Princes Avenue in Chatham.

Prosecutor Ian Hope said Ismael fell from his motorcycle as it slid across the carriageway. A BMW driver had seen the bike cross the give way line from Heron Way and was able to avoid him.

But Dye, who was travelling behind the BMW, then ran over Ismael, trapping him underneath his car.

Another driver stopped and called 999, but the victim was declared dead at the scene. He was a provisional licence holder who had passed his basic training and was showing L plates.

Mr Hope said an expert found the main contributory factor to the collision was that the teenager had fallen from his bike and entered the path of approaching vehicles.

“It is clear, therefore, that he placed himself in a very vulnerable position,” he said. “It is a little like a child running out across the road.”

But he added that other vehicles were able to stop without harming the victim.

Dye, however, was seen to swerve to the right as if to pass the BMW and drive on. He did not stop until he hit Ismael and his bike. Brake lights were only seen at the point of collision.

Dye drove behind the BMW with no more than a few feet between them.

His passenger was to describe the driving as fast at times and “getting up the back of cars”. He had wanted to “get a move on” to reach a shop before closing.

Mr Barron got out of the car after the collision and told Dye the victim was underneath. Dye tried to reverse, but failed to do so.

Despite his passenger’s protests, he insisted that they should run away. They fled discarding clothing in an alley.

Dye threw his glasses away in an attempt to disguise his identity. He hid the car keys in a hedge.

He phoned his mother and claimed somebody else had taken her car. Mr Barron was arrested after Dye blamed him for taking it. He told police he was sitting in a park at the time.

“He repeatedly told his mother he would not have stolen her car again,” said Mr Hope. “He repeated that lying account in his interview.”

“He repeatedly told his mother he would not have stolen her car again. He repeated that lying account in his interview...” - Prosecutor Ian Hope

Dye had been released on police bail after being arrested for dangerous driving on December 22 last year.

Police were looking for the car after it failed to stop in Woking in Surrey and on the M25 back to Kent in a high speed chase.

It was seen again 24 hours later in Chatham, travelling at 70mph in a 40mph zone. He sped along a country lane.

Police deployed a stinger device and Dye drove over it at 50mph, puncturing the two front tyres. Still, he continued driving on the wrong side of the road on blind bends.

Mr Hope said the chase lasted four miles before Dye gave himself up. Officers saw there was a hysterical mother with her two-year-old child in the car.

She told police she had screamed at him to stop, but he refused. He told him the stinger had got him but it was alright. Her child was screaming in the rear passenger seat.

A moving victim impact statement from Ismael’s mother Maria Brittain, in which she spoke of the loss of her “baby”, was read out in court.

Daniel Stevenson, defending, said Dye suffered from ADHD, asperger’s syndrome and autism. He accepted his actions at the scene of the tragedy were disgraceful.

Judge Carey said Dye and the car were out of control during the dangerous driving and there could have been devastating consequences.

He said of Dye being released on bail: “If ever there was a time when you should have learnt your lesson, that was it.”

But he then took his mother’s car again on January 2. Had he taken notice of Mr Barron’s pleas for him to slow down, the tragedy would not have happened, said the judge.

“A life was needlessly lost, and anyone with an ounce of decency would have done everything they could to find out whether something could be done, at least to call the emergency services, at least to see where some signs of life were present,” he continued.

“What did you do? You ran away. More than that, you tried to get out of it by discarding clothing and hiding the car keys. Even worse, you blamed others, including your passenger and sought to involve your mother being complicit in fabricating a story.”