A DRIVER has been jailed for more than a decade for killing an elderly man in a hit-and-run while being chased by police.

Gavin Dawes was already on bail for a previous dangerous driving offence when he raced through the Old Steine in Brighton on January 10.

Shortly after 10pm he hit 78-year-old Jonos Sasvari, killing him.

Dawes, 33, was yesterday jailed for 10 years and three months at Hove Crown Court. The sentence follows him pleading guilty to causing death by dangerous driving.

He also admitted two counts of driving dangerously along Lewes Road, Coombe Road, Bear Road, Old Steine and Madeira Drive.

The sentence also covers his previous dangerous driving offence of which he was found guilty by magistrates in February.

Police gave chase after he was spotted driving dangerously in a Vauxhall Astra and failed to pull over at around 10pm.

He continued driving into the centre of Brighton where he hit Mr Sasvari.

He did not stop and carried on to Madeira Drive, where he abandoned the car.

But the father-of-two handed himself in the following morning.

%image('6471489', type="article-full", alt="The Vauxhall Astra driven by Gavin Dawes")

Prosecutor Elizabeth Lowe said Dawes - who has 13 previous convictions for 17 offences - was on bail at the time for another dangerous driving offence committed four months earlier.

On the fatal crash, Ms Lowe told the court: "It was prolonged and persistent and he was in pursuit.

"He knew that the police wanted him to stop and he didn't, and there was an apparent disregard for the danger of others.

"It was luck rather than judgment that there was only one fatality. His driving was extraordinary and he was on bail for a very similar offence at the commission of this one."

%image('6471505', type="article-full", alt="The Vauxhall Astra found abandoned at Brighton Marina")

Dawes, of Phoenix Rise, Brighton, was sentenced for his offences on January as well as the previous incident in September which he was found guilty for at a magistrates' court trial in February.

Richard Woolgar, 35, of Donald Hall Road, Brighton, has been jailed for 12 months for dangerous driving. 

He was also disqualified from driving for three years and fined for driving without a licence or insurance.

Sergeant Richard Hornsey, of Sussex Police, said afterwards: "It's difficult to imagine a case where a driver has had so little regard for the safety of others than this one.

"Gavin Dawes wasn't drunk or on drugs. He made a conscious decision that night to drive at grossly excessive speeds along urban roads and into the heart of Brighton.

"John had just left a local betting shop and was making his way home when he used the pedestrian crossing at the Old Steine.

"He was in the middle of the crossing when he was struck by Dawes' Astra and he was tragically killed."

In the wake of the fatal hit-and-run, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) launched an investigation into the circumstances of the police involvement.