JAILED: Dudley driver who killed 23-year-old passenger gets 14 months

In 2014 Jamie Wharton, aged 31, skidded off the road into a garden on St Peter's Road in Netherton, killing 23-year-old front-seat passenger Timothy Pearson.

More than two years later Wharton, of Birch Coppice, Quarry Bank, had been due to stand trial on a charge of causing death by dangerous driving.

But after the Crown Prosecution Service agreed to accept the lesser charge, on Monday Wharton pleaded guilty to causing death by careless or inconsiderate driving. And today he was locked up for 14 months and banned from driving for four years and seven months.

The pair were in a Nissan Skyline being driven by Wharton when it left the road in wet conditions on the evening of June 3, 2014.

The Nissan skidded sideways off the road in what was described as a 'crab-like' movement in court.

Mr Pearson, who was from Quarry Bank, was pronounced dead at the scene while Wharton was injured in the crash but made a full recovery.

Ahead of the sentencing, Miss Sally Hancox, prosecuting, said the wet surface and the fact that the car had moved sideways before leaving the road made it difficult to determine how fast it had been going before the crash. But she said it was the prosecution's case that Wharton's driving fell 'not far short of dangerous driving'.

She also said there was 'no suggestion of any difficulties or pre-existing mechanical problems' with the car.

Reacting to Wharton's jail sentence, PC Dave Hand, from West Midlands Police's Regional Collision Investigation Unit, said: "Wharton lost control of the car and hit a garden wall, resulting in a needless loss of life.

"Wharton's driving that night was careless and tragically resulted in the death of a young man which could have been avoided. My thoughts are with Mr Pearson's family."