THE family of a Liverpool businessman mown down by a boy racer, on one of the city’s busiest roads, last night told of their heartache.

University drop-out Sam Griffiths, 23, ploughed his out-of-control Ford Fiesta into three pedestrians on Smithdown Road, in Wavertree, after speeding through red lights and undertaking other drivers.

He killed antiques restorer Alan Jackson, 48, after losing control as he hurtled around a bend at “motorway speeds” – leaving himself with permanent brain damage.

Griffiths, of Apple Tree Close, in Allerton, was yesterday jailed for four years, three months after admitting death by dangerous driving.

Judge Mark Brown told him: “Your aggressive driving has had devastating and tragic consequences for others. There is no doubt in my mind that your motivation was thrill-seeking and bravado. This was a form of boy racing, where you were showing off to the other person in the car.”

The court heard how Mr Jackson, owner of The Liverpool Furniture Repair Centre, was fixing a light in the back of a white van when he was hit by Griffiths’s silver car on November 20 last year. The grandfather of two died after undergoing emergency surgery.

His family paid respects to a “kind, loving and funny” man, who was “generous to a fault”. Daughters Sian Smith and Sophie Holmes recalled a “brilliant dad”.