AN illegal immigrant who fell asleep at the wheel of his car killing one of his friends in a crash was jailed for 30 months at Isleworth Crown Court last Monday.

Sukchain Chhina, 23, of Woolwich Road, Charlton, was found guilty of causing the death of his friend Harsimran Sra, 22, of Beaconsfield Road, Southall, on May 2.

Chhina was driving home from the West End with three friends when he fell asleep at the wheel, collided with another car and crashed through fencing outside the Hoover building, coming to rest in a wooded area behind the pavement. Mr Sra, a student, was sitting in the back behind the driver, and died at the scene.

Chhina and his two surviving passengers then fled the scene of the accident one even directing police as they ran, the court heard.

Jailing Chhina for two and a half years, banning him from driving for three years and recommending him for deportation, Judge Richard McGregor-Johnson told him: "Nothing I can say or do can alter the fact that a young man lost his life in that car. The fact remains you should not have been driving at five o'clock in the morning because you ran the risk of falling asleep. It is plain that your attention had been drawn to the risk that you might fall asleep in the car. That is a factor I cannot overlook."

It was five o'clock in the morning and the foursome had been socialising since the previous evening.

Prosecutor Helen Staley said: "It seems that, given the hour, everyone in the car was sleepy. Some of the passengers were actually sleeping. The driver was falling asleep at the wheel as he drove. This defendant's dangerous driving was the cause of the crash."

Speaking at the trial, Chhina blamed his front seat passenger for the accident, saying the man fell on him causing him to swerve after he told him to sit down and stop "dancing around" to his favourite tune.

Defence counsel James Scobie said Chhina had not been in trouble before and greatly regretted his friend's death.