A driver has been acquitted of causing the death of another driver in a smash on the Old Thanet Way.

William Cliff burst into tears in the dock at Canterbury Crown Court after the jury found him not guilty.

Victim Adrian Stroud’s VW Golf had passed Mr Cliff's Corsa on the A2990 near Herne Bay before ploughing into a Range Rover turning into the road.

Mr Stroud was thrown from the car and died at the scene between the Greenhill and Herne Bay roundabouts in April last year.

Mr Cliff had denied causing the 23-year-old Margate man’s death by dangerous driving.

Prosecutors had alleged that he had been racing Mr Stroud at the time.

The 21-year-old, of Stoppington Cottage, Doddington, had insisted he had been driving at a steady 55mph when he was aware of a car behind him.

“It approached me very fast, it came behind at speed.

“It must have been very close behind me as I could not see about three-quarters of its headlights in my rear-view mirror.”

Mr Cliff had two passengers with him as he drove along the Old Thanet Way from the Tesco at Whitstable towards Herne Bay at just after midnight on Sunday, April 19.

"I did not know Adrian Stroud and to the allegation that we were racing each other, I say that is absolutely incorrect" - William Cliff

He said that he believed the car behind was going to overtake him on the 40mph stretch of road.

Mr Cliff added: “I just remember the lights of the car moving from the back of my bumper to my right-hand side before he cut back in dead in front of me.

“I said something like ‘look at this bloody idiot’.”

Mr Stroud’s Golf cut back in front of Cliff’s Corsa at the junction with Flamingo Drive, which leads onto the Stillwater Estate.

It was there, he told the jury, that a car was waiting to turn right into Eddington Way.

He went on: “I saw the indicator of the car in the road and I hoped it would not pull in front of the Golf. I hoped he would anticipate how the Golf was driving and not turn.

“The collision happened almost instantly after he cut in front of me. There was a massive crash and I remember seeing the Golf spinning away. There was debris and plastic in the road. A catastrophe happened in front of my eyes.”

Cliff said he stopped his car and went over to the Range Rover, which contained driver Matthew Garner and his wife, to check on them. He saw the Golf was on fire in bushes and saw no one inside when he looked.

He added: “I did not know Adrian Stroud and to the allegation that we were racing each other, I say that is absolutely incorrect.”

Earlier in the trial, prosecutor Stephen Earnshaw said that Mr Stroud may have been travelling as fast as 80mph and Cliff 55mph.

In addition to being acquitted of causing Mr Stroud’s death, Cliff was also found not guilty of seriously injuring the passenger in the Range Rover.