A NOVICE and uninsured teenage driver, who killed a schoolboy passenger when he lost control of a powerful car while showing off, has been locked up for four years.

Syam Khan, then 17, fled the scene as 15-year-old Saliq Malik lay dying in the wreckage - returning only to pick up his mobile phone in a bid to avoid being traced, Bradford Crown Court heard.

The driver Syam Khan

Sentencing Khan, now 19, to four years youth custody today, Judge Jonathan Rose said: "This was a relatively short, but highly dangerous piece of driving, combining highly excessive speed on a residential street with a wholly untrained and irresponsible driver operating a powerful car and showing off for the benefit of the young people whose lives were in your hands."

Judge Rose said there had to be a custodial sentence to punish Khan and to deter others in Bradford from driving dangerously without thought for their passengers, pedestrians and road users.

He said: "A car is a lethal weapon. When it is driven at very high speed the capacity for harm is untold."

GUILTY: Teenager convicted of causing boy's death by dangerous driving​

Khan was estimated to have been driving at twice the 30mph speed limit when he lost control of the Volkswagen Golf GTi in Gilpin Street, Barkerend, Bradford, at about 11am on September 12, 2014.

The car span and smashed side on into the wall of St Clement's Church, and a parked car.

Front seat passenger Saliq died in hospital from his injuries several hours later. Back seat passenger Haris Khan, also 15, suffered a fractured pelvis and elbow in the accident and needed surgery.

Victim Saliq Malik

Syam Khan, of Kimberley Street, Laisterdyke, Bradford, was convicted last month of causing death by dangerous driving and causing serious injury by dangerous driving. He lied from the start, and to the jury during the trial, claiming he was not driving and was a back seat passenger.

The court heard Khan had now admitted to being the driver but still maintained he had not driven dangerously.

Judge Rose said the most likely explanation for Khan losing control was that he saw a car about to emerge from a side street and reacted in an exaggerated manner, turning the steering wheel with such violence the car began to rotate.

But he added: "You drove a very powerful car, though you didn't have any of the skills required to do so. You hadn't had a single driving lesson, you never even held a provisional driving licence."

The court heard that though Khan had no previous convictions, he had admitted driving with friends from the age of 15.

Police at the scene of the crash

Judge Rose said Khan ran away after the accident, obtaining a lift from a passing car.

He added: "You came back, not to render assistance to the tragically dying young man still in the car, or the injured Haris Khan, but to remove your phone for fear that it would link you to this offence."

He added: "There were two victims in that car, one died, one was seriously injured, and a family has been left bereft. Another family has seen a young man - you - in custody and facing a longer custodial sentence. For all that you are responsible."

In mitigation, Khan's barrister, Andrew Dallas, said his client was young, relatively immature and beholden to others.

"It may be he was under considerable pressure which he was, wrongly, unable to resist."

Mr Dallas said the dangerous driving was not prolonged or persistent.

Judge Rose said Saliq's family had been devastated by his death and a statement by his father, Amjad Malik, said it had "left an emptiness in our heart. I feel a part of me has gone forever".

The judge said Saliq was loved a great deal. He had many friends, was an accomplished footballer and saw his future as a mechanic. He was described as a really good son, who was never disrespectful, and was a religious young man who regularly attended the mosque.

Judge Rose told Khan: "I must underline how young men like you, who drive powerful cars that they shouldn't be driving, that they are not equipped to drive, that they are not capable of driving, who cause serious injury and death will receive substantial sentences of custody."