A drink driver left his friend dying in the back seat of his car after smashing into a tree at high speed.

Jonathan Wenham, 40, was seen driving through Brighton at speeds of up to 90 mph while two and half times the drink drive limit, as he took his colleagues to work in Ovingdean, at about 6.30am on Friday January 21 this year.

Wenham, of Ridgeside Avenue, Brighton, lost control of the car as he turned into Richmond Parade, from Richmond Place and Grand Avenue, causing the car to spin and hit a tree, killing back seat passenger Nicholas Messenger, 28.

Wenham, Mr Messenger, and their friends Glen Murdoch and Sahib Singh had been out drinking after finishing work on a construction site at the waste water treatment works in Ovingdean the night before the crash.

They drank a large amount of alcohol and then went back to the defendant's home where they drank more, including almost a whole bottle of vodka between them.

The next morning Wenham drove them back to work in his light blue, two door BMW.

When he crashed into a tree, Wenham fled the scene telling his friends “I am sorry. They will do me for D and D.”

Wenham was yesterday jailed for six and a half years at Lewes Crown Court after pleading guilty to causing death by dangerous driving and making a false statement to obtain insurance.

He was also banned from driving for five years and ordered to take an extended driving test to regain his licence.

Judge Richard Hayward said: “You left the scene without thought to your friends and colleagues who were left in the wrecked car. Your first thought was to protect yourself and not others.

“You cut short the life of a young man who had a 15-month-old daughter and the family of Nicholas has been devastated by your actions.”