Teenager James Whibley was today found guilty of killing his 18-year-old friend Jamie White in a car crash.

Whibley was convicted after a three-week trial which ended at Hove Crown Court this afternoon.

Whibley, of Ditchling Road, Brighton, had denied being the driver of the car.

His defence team insisted Jahid Arien, 20, of Woodbourne Avenue, Brighton, was behind the wheel at the time of the accident.

But the jury today rejected his claims and convicted him of causing death by dangerous driving.

Arien and a third passenger, 20-year-old Neil Clarke, of Rotherfield Crescent, Brighton, were found guilty of allowing themselves to be carried in a stolen vehicle.

The crash happened after Whibley, Arien, Clarke and Jamie met up with others for a night out in Brighton on November 26 last year.

They drank beer and tequila in the King and Queen pub in Marlborough Place, then the Shark Bar and finally Swift's in West Street.

With pals Greg Robson, 20, and Justin Wingrove, 19, they tried to get into the Paradox nightclub but were left outside.

Whibley later said he was so drunk he Teenager guilty of death crash could barely remember what happened next.

But the court heard Whibley broke into a blue Ford Escort in Windsor Court, hotwired it and sped off up Ditchling Road at full speed.

A police van pursued the car but was trailing at least a mile behind when the Escort spun the wrong way up Ditchling Road, jumping a red light.

At the junction of Upper Lewes Road and Viaduct Road the Escort collided with a taxi, driven by cabbie Peter Albon, who was taking his teenager passenger Vicki Dunk home after a night of babysitting.

The collision sent the Escort into a violent anti-clockwise spin, hurling Jamie 15 metres across the road.

The Escort hit a Ford Fiesta driven by Janet Stanford, leaving her with severe whiplash injuries.

The careering car then hit a Suzuki carrying the Tharme family.

Finally the flying vehicle struck 71-year-old pedestrian Donald Priest, flinging him across the bonnet, only yards from his home.

The three were due to be sentenced later.