A driver who seriously injured a nine-year-old boy in a hit and run has been jailed.

Unemployed Nathan Limbachia, 25, was found guilty of causing serious injury by dangerous driving after the high-speed crash that saw nine-year-old Zakariya Razak flung from his grandmother's car.

Limbachia, of Birch Way, Haywards Heath, had already pleaded guilty to failing to stop at the scene of a collision, failing to report a collision, driving without a licence and no insurance.

Zakariya’s younger brother and sister were also passengers in the their grandmother's VW Golf on March 18 last year when Limbachia smashed the Audi S4 he was driving into it. All three children were injured.

Judge Shani Barnes at Lewes Crown Court told Limbachia on Friday: "You should feel ashamed of what you did.”

Adding that he had made “reckless and terrible decisions” causing the “most horrendous damage to a law-abiding family that night".

Zakariya's father Mahomed Razak said after Limbachia was sentenced: "We hope that the outcome will strongly deter individuals from driving dangerously so that no one person or family has to go through the trauma we experienced.”

"We are very pleased to see the person who put our family's lives at risk and left them for dead was finally brought to justice.

"My wife and I would like to thank all the considerate members of the public who assisted my family."

The investigating officer, PC Shirley Ross, said: “This has been a long and complicated investigation. Throughout, Limbachia attempted to conceal his involvement and avoid taking responsibility for his dangerous driving and ultimately causing this devastating collision.”

Limbachia was sentenced to three years' imprisonment for causing serious injury by dangerous driving after he appeared at Lewes Crown Court on Friday.

In addition to the sentence for motoring offences, Limbachia was jailed for a further six months for possessing drugs with intent to supply. He had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing.