A SURGEON who loaned his sports car to a friend so he could go on a drugs run - then denied he had done so when the man crashed the vehicle and died - was jailed for nine months this week.

Former Warrington Hospital surgeon Dr Mark Anderton was at a drunken party when he asked Daniel Hughes to purchase ecstasy and gave him the keys for his high-powered sports car, Nottingham Crown Court heard.

But 28-year-old Hughes, who was twice the drink drive limit, crashed the vehicle, killing passenger Colin Wood, aged 33, a jury heard.

Later Dr Anderton, of Hermitage Road, Saughall, Chester, claimed the car had been taken without his permission and made a fraudulent £16,000 insurance claim.

Anderton denied intending to pervert the course of justice and attempting to obtain an insurance payout by deception but was convicted following a trial.

The court heard that Anderton was drunk six hours before he was due to go on duty at Leicester Royal Infirmary, when he sent Hughes and Wood on the drugs mission.

Outside court, Wood's mother Sandra labelled Anderton a "greedy liar, motivated by money and heartless with it."