A DRUG-ADDLED driver who killed his “best friend” in a 93mph horror crash in East Lancashire has been jailed for 44 months.

The high-powered BMW driven by Ilias Kindilidis demolished 50m of dry-stone wall off Rochdale Road, Edenfield, and rolled several times, front-seat passenger Farhan Majid being thrown though the windscreen, Burnley Crown Court was told.

MORE TOP STORIES:

Kindilidis, 30, told police: “I have lost my best friend who I respected like an elder brother.”

Checks showed that Kindilidis had cannabis in his system at the time of the crash, which occurred when he lost control of his BMW on a left-hand bend en route to Edenfield.

But Mr Majid’s parents still wrote a letter to Judge Beverley Lunt, asking for leniency for Kindilidis who suffered a broken wrist and dislocated shoulder as a result of the crash. Jailing him, Judge Lunt said that both speed and the defendant’s drug use were factors in the fatal collision.

But the judge said she had taken into account Mr Majid’s parents’ “noble” appeal when passing sentence on Kindilidis, who admitted causing death by dangerous driving.

Emma Kehoe, prosecuting, said police determined that when the BMW’s airbag deployed, when the car hit a kerb before leaving the road, the vehicle was travelling at 93mph. Myles Wilson, defending, said his client had shown significant remorse for the role he played in his friend’s death.

Kindilidis, of Monton Road, Manchester, was banned from driving for four years and must take an extended retest before returning to the road.