A YOUNG man’s “show-off” driving killed one of his best friends and seriously injured a second when he crashed into a tree and wall near Eggborough.

Surgeons had to perform groundbreaking experimental surgery to save the life of Dale Spence, who suffered head injuries in the crash, York Crown Court heard.

His friend Jamie Nicholson, 19, died from his injuries.

Tina Dempster, prosecuting, said that shortly before the crash, on Cobcroft Lane approaching Cridling Stubbs, another motorist saw Mark Anthony Tiffin performing handbrake turns in a nearby field in a hired Astra. Then Tiffin drove fast along the road and took a bend so fast he lost control. The car hit the verge, was momentarily airborne as it spun across the carriageway, and crashed into a wall and tree on the opposite side.

Immediately afterwards Tiffin blamed the accident on a white van that was driving perfectly correctly.

Dr Dempster said witnesses believed the car was stolen because of the way it was driven in the field.

Recorder Alistair MacDonald QC said: “It is clear to me the defendant deliberately drove into the field to show off.

“That drives me to be sure that the defendant was showing off and the excessive speed round the bend was not just an isolated lapse of judgement.”

He jailed Tiffin, 20, for 12 months, banned him from driving for two years and ordered him to retake his driving test.

Tiffin, of Derwent Place, Knottingley, pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving on September 27, 2009. The judge described Mr Nicholson as a hard-working quiet man who died through his hobby of cruising with his friends. For Tiffin, Tim Bubb said he had had suicidal thoughts because he was so remorseful about the death. He had only passed his driving test six months before the crash and had driven little since.

His desperation to turn the clock back could have been why he blamed the white van driver.