A MOTORIST admitted careless driving while he was almost twice the drink drive limit following a crash which killed his best friend.

Robert Clark, 26, of Stanhill Lane, Oswaldtwistle, was told he would be spared an immediate jail term by a judge at Burnley Crown Court.

Clark yesterday pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving when over the prescribed limit, over the crash which left Matthew Saporito dead.

Mr Saporito, 23, who lived in Whalley Road, Accrington, was a passenger in Clark's Subaru Impreza which crashed into a dry-stone wall in Rising Bridge Road, Rising Bridge, on April 26, 2005.

The court was told that Clark gave a test showing 145 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood. The legal limit is 80.

Clark, who admitted the offence the day he had been due to stand trial, was unconditionally bailed until July 13 to be sentenced at Preston Crown Court. He was banned from driving.

Judge Beverley Lunt who described the case as highly unusual and exceptional, told Clark there must be a custodial sentence, but she would suspend it and probably give him unpaid work as well.

The judge told the court she had read a wealth of material on the case.

She said: "No court is bound or necessarily swayed by the views of either family concerned.

"But they don't ignore them either."

After Mr Saporito's death, his mum Wendy and sister Nicola said he was a "big softy" who always told his family and friends how much he loved them.

Clarets fan Mr Saporito, who owned his own building company, grew up in Accrington but had been living in Leeds.

He was a talented swimmer and had hoped to swim professionally until he got injured.

He started swimming with Hyndburn's Pioneer club and was later a member of the City of Salford club.

Then, when he was 18 he moved to Leeds to join the City of Leeds swimming club.

But after injury prevented him from taking the sport further he went to college to train as a joiner and eventually started his own building firm.