A man allegedly helped his friend set fire to a car in a bid to cover up a fatal car crash, a court was told.

Gary Finch died after he was hit by a car driven by Christopher Rolfe as he walked home with friends.

The 18-year-old was hurled down an embankment after being struck by the car which was being driven at up to 60mph. Rolfe did not stop at the scene and Gary died in hospital from head injuries four days later.

Rufus Stilgoe, prosecuting, said Rolfe phoned his friend Adam Beeney minutes after hitting the teenager on a dangerous bend in Upper Park Road, Hastings, on November 14 last year.

He said: "This was a tragic incident which Gary Finch's family and others will never forget. The car was plainly going too fast on a dangerous bend where there was no footpath."

Mr Stilgoe said Rolfe was upset when he rang Beeney at his home in Cotswold Crescent, Hastings.

He said: "Rolfe told him he had been in an accident and thought he had hit a parked car.

"When he arrived at Adam Beeney's house he was upset and wringing his hands.

"He asked Beeney to go out to buy a can of petrol and gave him some money.

"We know from employees at the Texaco petrol station at The Ridge he paid £2.50 for a can of petrol at 9.55pm.

"He went back home and he and Christopher Rolfe left together at 10.05pm.

"Rolfe's Renault 19 was found burning in Upper Broomgrove Road some ten minutes later.

"At 10.20pm, they both returned to Beeney's house together."

Rolfe, 44, of Pevensey Road, St Leonards, has admitted trying to pervert the course of justice, failing to stop after an accident and other motoring offences.

Beeney, 25, denied perverting the course of justice when he appeared at Hove Crown Court yesterday.

Jennifer Capps, Beeney's partner, said she heard him telling Rolfe to come round in a phone call shortly before he turned up on their doorstep.

She said: "When he came round he practically fell in the door, crying his eyes out.

"He kept saying he didn't know what he had done and said he thought he had clipped a parked car.

"I went out to look at the car and saw there was some damage to the lights on the left.

"Half of the left side of the windscreen had also been damaged. There was a big egg shape in it."

Miss Capps said Rolfe gave Beeney some change and asked him to go to buy some petrol because he had run out.

She said Beeney came back ten minutes later and both men left the house 30 minutes after that.

She said: "They were both back in the house by 10.30pm at the latest and then they went over the road to the pub until closing time."

The trial continues.