A MOTORING menace travelling "ridiculously fast" ploughed into an elderly man who had just stepped from a bus causing "horrific multiple injuries" which killed him instantly.

Richard Boyer's driving record showed three convictions for drink driving, two for dangerous driving and three for driving while disqualified before the smash that killed Alan Brown, 65.

Witnesses told how Boyer's Volvo was travelling so fast the air turbulence shook their vehicles as it passed before it mowed down Mr Brown, mounted a pavement, hit a fence and overturned.

Boyer was jailed for four-and-a-half years after he admitted causing death by dangerous driving - must serve it on top of a four-year term he is already serving for a robbery.

Prosecutor Sue Jacobs told Teesside Crown Court the accident happened last October as former council road sweeper Mr Brown stepped off a bus on Wilderness Road, Middlesbrough.

One witness who saw Boyer's vehicle estimated it to be travelling at 100pmh, and a bus driver said the air turbulence its speed created shook his vehicle as it flew past.

A garage owner, who saw the Volvo, told police: "From 30 years' experience, it sounded like the noise of an engine reaching maximum revs accelerating in high gear and travelling ridiculously fast. It was unstable and wallowing due to the high speed."

Mrs Jacobs said: "The accident investigator calculated the average speed over the distance to be 72mph but because there was CCTV earlier of it travelling at a normal speed, that has to be taken into account.

"Because of the position of the body parts, the minimum speed at the point of impact would have been 63mph."

When arrested and interviewed, Boyer said he had swerved to avoid one passenger when he ploughed into Mr Brown.

Following the accident, Boyer struggled to cope with what he had done and began drinking heavily, and committed a robbery on a shop while wearing a balaclava and carrying two knives.

Peter Wishlade, mitigating, said: "His driving on that day was reprehensible and inexcusable - something he accepts.

"As he approached the bus, he was concerned with the first gentleman who got out of the way, and swerved to the right to miss him and hit Mr Brown causing instantaneous fatal injuries."

Mr Wishlade said Boyer's fishing tackle shop in Stockton, which once had a turnover of half-a-million pounds a year, had been badly hit by the recession and went into liquidation.

He added: "He cannot explain why he was driving that way, perhaps it was bravado, I cannot say, but the consequences were enormous and will affect him for the rest of his life."

Judge Peter Bowers said: "Your past driving record is a very aggravating feature, it has to be taken into account when one looks at sentencing powers."

Boyer of Rowan Close, Ingleby Barwick, near Stockton, was also banned from driving for ten years.