A MAN from Burnham-on-Sea was more than double the drink drive limit when he crashed into a tree killing one of his friends and leaving the other with life-changing injuries, a court has heard.

The court was told Lee Stoodley was behind the wheel when a red BMW missed a turning and went over Dunball roundabout on the A38 before crashing on December 20, 2015, before trying to flee the scene.

Lewis Rogers, a passenger, was declared dead at the scene and another passenger, Daniel Reed, was rushed to hospital and suffered life-changing injuries.

Stoodley, 31 of Gielgud Close, Burnham-on-Sea, appeared at Taunton Crown Court on Monday and denied causing the death of Mr Rogers by careless driving.

Prosecuting, Ray Tully, told the court: “The defendant had 88 microgrammes of alcohol in his breath when he was breathalysed by PC Lauren Hill after the crash.

“He was well over the legal limit.

“Lee Stoodley says he was not driving the car, he says Christopher Hampton was driving at the time of the crash. The prosecution believes this is untrue and that Stoodley was trying to shift the blame onto Mr Hampton.

“Mr Hampton has admitted he drove the car back from the pub he had parked at, back to the Oaktree venue in Highbridge, where they had been at their work’s Christmas party.

“But, he said after he picked the other men up he began to feel unwell so he stopped the car and got out to relieve himself.

“By the time Mr Hampton returned to the car, Stoodley had exchanged his seat for the driver’s seat.”

Mr Tully said Stoodley knew he was driving at the time of the crash and used the confusion after the incident to his advantage.

Mr Tully added: “Witnesses said they heard Mr Hampton say, ‘I can’t go down for this, I have a family and two young children’ and they saw Mr Hampton crawl over the driver’s seat of the car to get out after the crash.

“If Mr Hampton had been driving, why would he crawl over the driver’s seat to get out of the car?”

The prosecution added Mr Hampton would be giving a witness statement after a charge against him of aiding and abetting Stoodley to commit a criminal offence was dropped.

The defence will give their opening statement later this week.

Stoodley denies the charge. The trial continues.