A widow has blasted the "diabolical" behaviour of a man who claimed to be her husband's close friend - then left him dead by a roadside following a late-night road race.

John Benn-Landale, 48, was killed when his silver Volkswagen Transporter hit a bus coming the other way on the A659 Pool Road, Otley, at 10.50pm on February 1, 2008.

Leeds Crown Court heard how father-of-three Mr Benn-Landale, of Prince Henry Road, Otley, had been racing with a friend, Philip Airey, of Mill Croft Estate, Pool-in-Wharfedale, when the accident happened. They had both been drinking beforehand in the Cross Pipes pub, Otley, and had decided to race to Pool, where Mr Benn-Landale, who was estranged from his wife, sometimes stayed with the Aireys.

Prosecutor Richard Clews, summing up his case on Friday, said witnesses had seen "the two vehicles travelling at very high speed going out of Otley, side by side with each other, over quite a distance, neither giving any quarter.

"They were both racing. That means both of them were driving dangerously even without the added feature of drink.

"The simple truth is that Mr Airey was ahead to be-gin with and was not going to let Mr Benn-Landale past without a proper fight.

"They were still racing by the time both vehicles reached the bend where this unfortunate and tragic accident happened."

But 50-year-old father-of-five Mr Airey did not stay with his friend following the crash, which was so violent it split Mr Benn-Landale's van in two, and failed to report the accident.

Instead, he drove home in the Toyota Land Cruiser Turbo he had been racing in and got his wife, Catherine, to drive them back to the scene - but they parked some distance away.

When approached by a police officer who asked if they had witnessed the crash, Mrs Airey said "no", and they were told to leave.

Mr Clews said that was just one example of the couple's "deliberately deceitful" behaviour fol-lowing the smash, in an attempt to mislead the police investigation.

He said: "They gave the police the deliberate im-pression that they just happened to be passing and were curious as to what had happened. Mr Airey knew exactly what had happened and the overwhelming likelihood is his wife did, too.

"What these defendants did most certainly had a tendency to pervert the course of justice. What other intention could there have been?"

Mrs Airey eventually called the police at about 1.30am, but again failed to mention her husband's involvement and simply asked if they knew how Mr Benn-Landale was because "there had been a crash on the road".

They still said nothing of their knowledge of the accident when visited by a police family liaison officer a few hours later, who broke the news that Mr Benn-Landale was dead.

The jury took less than five hours on Monday to find Mr Airey guilty of causing death by dangerous driving and of two charges of trying to pervert the course of justice. Mrs Airey was also found guilty of trying to pervert the course of justice.

Speaking after the verdict, Mr Benn-Landale's widow, Lynda, said: "Justice has been done. I'm relieved, after all the lies that have been told and how they slagged John off. They were never close friends, John was in the middle of a mid-life crisis at the time which is why he stayed with them sometimes.

"We were still very much together and he was a very good father to the kids.

"With the lies that they told and the way they made John look, you wouldn't want to be their enemy if that's the way they treat a so-called friend.

"They behaved diabolically."

In later police interviews Mr Airey, who said he had drunk up to three pints of beer and had been worried about being breathalysed, claimed he had stopped, talked to the bus driver and carried out a search for Mr Benn-Landale before leaving.

He also insisted he had given up the race, fallen behind and taken his foot off the throttle before the two vehicles had reached the bend, which was beside the slip-road to the sewer works.

The prosecution, however, produced witness and ex-pert evidence to back up their claims that he had been leading the race.

The Aireys are due to be sentenced on Tuesday, June 30.

In later police inter-views Mr Airey, who said he had drunk up to three pints of beer and had been worried about being breathalysed, claimed he had stopped, talked to the bus driver and car-ried out a search for Mr Benn-Landale before leav-ing.

He also insisted he had given up the race, fallen behind and taken his foot off the throttle before they had reached the bend, which was beside the slip-road to the sewer works.

Speaking after the ver-dict Mr Benn-Landale's widow, Lynda, said: "Jus-tice has been done. I'm relieved, after all the lies that have been told and how they slagged John off.

"They were never close friends, John was in the middle of a mid-life cri-sis at the time which is why he stayed with them sometimes, but he would have come out the other side of Philip Airey.

"We were still very much together and he was a very good father to the kids.

"With the lies that they told and the way they made John look you would-n't want to be their en-emy, if that's the way they treat a so-called friend.

"They behaved diaboli-cally."

The Aireys are due to be sentenced on Tuesday, June 30.

ends