An illegal driver jailed for just eight months for mowing down a schoolboy will serve even less time behind bars following a judge's court blunder.

The Crown Prosecution Service has said Judge Anthony Thorpe exceeded his sentencing powers when he imposed the jail term on failed asylum-seeker Kamel Kadri.

The judge sentenced Kadri to eight months for driving without insurance or tax and for failing to stop after the accident in which nine-year-old Callum "CJ" Oakford died.

CJ was knocked down by Kadri's car in Ferring, near Worthing, on New Year's Day.

The judge also sentenced Kadri to another 16 months in prison for using a fake passport to stay in Britain, making a total of two years.

Kadri admitted the charges but Judge Thorpe, in the guarded language of the court, expressed anger that his hands had been tied to pass such a short sentence.

Now the CPS has said Judge Thorpe was only legally allowed to sentence Kadri to a maximum of six months for the motoring offences.

Kadri will now spend two months less in prison and may have his jail term reduced even further if his guilty plea is taken into account.

The Algerian, who used a fake passport to sneak past British immigration officers and con his way into a job at Worthing Hospital, abandoned his Renault 5 after the accident.

He fled the scene, leaving CJ dying at the roadside.

The car was registered under the name Mr Dodo and Kadri was only tracked down after a police search and appeals through The Argus.

Callum's family condemned Kadri's sentence at Chichester Crown Court on Thursday as "no justice".

A neighbour and family friend said: "He got a light sentence in the first place, let alone having it reduced."

CJ's sister, Kathryn Proudfoot, said Kadri should have been charged with manslaughter after Judge Thorpe said it was clear the defendant had been breaking the 50mph speed limit on the dual carriageway where the accident happened.

She is also lobbying MPs for new laws to target hit-and-run drivers.

West Worthing MP Peter Bottomley has agreed to take the matter to Parliament.

The case against Kadri has been provisionally relisted at Chichester Crown Court for Thursday to allow the judge to reconsider the sentences he imposed.