A memorial to the traffic officer whose death sparked the Argus Justice for Jeff campaign will be unveiled on Thursday.

The special service in Brighton Road, Shoreham, will take place at the spot where PC Jeff Tooley was killed by a hit-and-run driver.

The memorial stone has been paid for by the Police Memorial Trust founded by film director Michael Winner.

It is the 23rd memorial which Mr Winner's organisation has put in place to honour the service of police officers killed in the line of duty.

PC Tooley's mother, Veronica, said at her home in Bognor: "The memorial means that Jeff will not be forgotten. Knowing this has been arranged has really helped the family during the last year."

PC Tooley, 27, was killed in April last year when he tried to stop a van during a routine speed check close to Shoreham Police station where he was a member of the traffic department.

Van driver John Heaton, 47, failed to stop and drove to Devil's Dyke where he set fire to the van in a bid to destroy the evidence.

Three days later he gave himself up, claiming he had nodded off at the wheel through a combination of drink and fatigue.

Heaton, who had been living in Newmarket Road, Brighton, later admitted causing death by dangerous driving and was jailed for seven years when he appeared at Chichester Crown Court.

The Argus campaign was launched after Judge Anthony Thorpe compared the ten-year maximum sentence for the crime with the 14 years he could impose on a burglar.

He said: "This might strike the public as an odd approach to the value placed on human life."

The judge's comments led to the Argus campaign, backed by the Tooley family, for a change in the law allowing courts to impose a life sentence for the worst cases of causing carnage on the roads.

The campaign gained ground when Heaton lodged an appeal and had the sentence for causing PC Tooley's death cut to five years.

Ministers have promised that sentencing policy is to be looked at as part of a Government review into cases involving causing death on the roads. A consultation paper is due to be published this month.

Michael Winner is best known for his Death Wish series of films starring Charles Bronson but he also directed the award-winning The Nightcomers with Marlon Brando and Chorus Of Disapproval which featured Anthony Hopkins, Jeremy Irons and Patsy Kensit.

He launched the Police Memorial Trust in 1984 after the shooting of WPC Yvonne Fletcher outside the Libyan Embassy in London.

The granite memorial stone to PC Tooley starts with the words "here fell" and will give his name and the date he was killed. It will also contain the badge of the Sussex force.