MOTORIST Abid Hussain narrowly escaped jail after he lied to police following a smash last year on the M4 near Chippenham which left his 21-year-old boss dead.

The 38-year-old said his passenger Imran Hussain, who was killed in the late night smash, was driving the car when it left the road and flipped over in a small copse of trees.

He admitted to motorway police, ambulance staff and doctors that he had been driving, but lied to his boss's family and to police questioning him until days before he was to face trial.

The two men, who were not related but worked at an Asian TV company, were travelling from their homes in Leightonstone, East London, to Bristol on the night of February 17 last year.

Michael Longman, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court that they were in the defendant's K-reg Proton when it left the road on the westbound carriageway between Chippenham and Bath. The car went up a bank and into a wooded area where it flipped over and landed on the nearside.

No other vehicle was involved and there was no suggestion of exceeding the speed limit or driving dangerously.

But the tread depth on the rear nearside tyre was below the legal minimum and could have affected the car's handling, he said.

Mr Longman said that the passenger seatbelt had not been used.

Alan Williams, defending, said that having told the truth at the scene of the crash and in the immediate aftermath, his client felt that people were blaming him for the death, and so lied about what happened.

Days before the trial, Hussain owned up to being behind the wheel.

Sentencing him to 100 hours' community service and one-year probation, Recorder George Leggatt QC said that had he not changed his plea at the last minute he would have faced jail.