A drunk teenager who killed his friend when he crashed his car was on a mercy mission to hospital.

Ashley Taylor, 19, of Reculver Avenue, Birchington, panicked when a female friend started having a fit in a secluded car park on February 11 this year.

So he drove her and a group of others to find help at the Queen Elizabeth Queen Mother hospital, in Margate.

But, in icy conditions and driving at speeds of between 42 and 58mph in a 30mph zone, he crashed into a garden wall at the junction of Stone Road and Bishop's Avenue - killing his friend Benjamin Maitland instantly and injuring everyone else.

Now Taylor (pictured above) has been sent to a young offenders' institute for two years at Canterbury Crown Court after he admitted causing Mr Maitland's death by driving carelessly.

The tragedy unfolded after Taylor and Mr Maitland - a classic car enthusiast - met friends Lauren Whitcombe, Stephen Taylor and Jade Hennessy at Ye Olde Charles pub in Northdown Road, Clifftonville.

They decided to go for a drive and went back to the pub to collect Taylor's Vauxhall Corsa because Miss Hennessey's car, which was going to be driven by Mr Maitland, had no fuel.

Kerry Waitt, defending, said Taylor, who had been driving only five months, had received no complaints about his driving then.

She said: "When he pulled up at the car park, they started drinking wine with the intention of staying there until 6am as two members of the group had been locked out of the hostel where they were staying and couldn't get in."

Classic cars flanked the hearse at enthusiast Benjamin Maitland's funeral

Some time after arriving at the car park of North Foreland Golf Club in Broadstairs, Miss Hennessy - who they believed to have taken drugs, started to fit.

Her eyes started rolling and she was foaming at the mouth. The group agreed she needed medical help and that she should be taken to hospital.

Mr Waitt added: "Ashley panicked and said he could get her to hospital quicker."

Front seat passenger Stephen Taylor said the defendant "went off at a fast speed, driving too fast for the conditions".

He saw the speedometer reach 50mph and told him he needed to be concerned for the safety of all those in the car.

He said when driving along Stone Road, Taylor was swerving and his tyres were screeching until the car coasted at 52mph around the bend where they crashed with the impact to the offside rear of the car.

Ashley Taylor was sentenced at Canterbury Crown Court

Mr Maitland died instantly of multiple injuries and Lauren Whitcombe drifted in and out of consciousness and suffered three fractures to the spine.

When police arrived, Taylor - who had been trying to help his friends with local residents - admitted he had been drinking and driving and was "full of remorse".

"I've drunk, I've driven. That's it," said - later adding he wished it had been him who died.

Mr Recorder Wallis described the case as "tragic".

He gave Taylor credit for his early guilty plea and his "genuine remorse", reducing the sentence by a third to two years.