A TEENAGER has admitted killing his friend by driving dangerously in Colchester.

Josh Irvine, 18, of Canterbury Road, Colchester, was a passenger in a Citroen Saxo when driver Michael Lock, 19, of Cowdray Avenue, Colchester, careered into a roadsweeper in Bromley Road in November 2012.

On Friday, Lock appeared at Chelmsford Crown Court charged with causing death by dangerous driving and changed his plea to guilty.

Josh’s dad Patrick, who was at court with Josh’s mother Tracey, said: “I wanted a trial, because the story would have all come out.

“It was a relief to hear the word guilty, but it has taken 18 months and should have been done a long time ago.

“He has put me and Josh’s mother through all this when it was simple – he caused the death of our son.

“When he is sentenced on June 16, even if he gets ten years, it is never going to be enough.”

At court Judge Charles Gratwicke told Lock to expect a jail sentence.

He said: “You should be in no doubt at all that for offences such as this, courts normally deal with them by way of sentences of imprisonment.”

Josh, a former St Helena School pupil, was studying engineering at Colchester Institute when he died.

His dream was to become a marine engineer and join the Royal Navy.

Hundreds of people attended the funeral for the popular teenager and a memorial bench with the words “Our angel flying high. Keep watching over us our beautiful boy” has been placed in East Bay park at the bottom of East Hill.

The bench was paid for by his friends, who organised a series of fundraising events, and made by his uncle.

Mr Irvine said: “Since his death, the kindness shown has been phenomenal.

“We take things day by day. I get up in the morning and see Tracey and she helps me carry on.”

Josh was an only child and today would have been his 20th birthday.

Following the crash, Essex County Council launched a proposal to change the speed limit along a stretch of Bromley Road to 40mph.

It was changed on March 31 this year.