A GRIEVING mother has slammed the jail sentence handed to the driver who mowed down and killed her teenage son.

Denise Borland said Ghulam Hussain should be locked up forever - but he could be out in just three years.

Hussain, 28, who had been racing his father's Nissan Primera at up to 70mph down a bus lane, hit 19-year-old pedestrian Craig Borland. He died four days later in hospital.

After Hussain was jailed for six years, Mrs Borland, a 48-year-old bakery assistant from Oldham, said: "He should have got life or a lot longer than six years. The law over here is too lenient. In other countries, he would have got life. I'm not happy. He could have got a much longer sentence. He didn't admit he had done wrong. He wouldn't admit he was in the bus lane or was speeding.

"I don't have any sympathy for him. In a way, I wish my son had been killed outright rather than suffering as he did."

Mrs Borland said her son had only just moved into Manchester city centre to begin a new life. He travelled every day to work as a shop assistant at Matalan in Oldham and in the evenings had a bar job in Manchester's Gay Village.

Craig, an only child, had just signed up with a model agency, she said. "He was just settling down," said Mrs Borland. "He was just a lovely lad. He would do anything for anybody. He got on with his friends very well."

Craig was crossing Ashton Road in Oldham to see his mum at a nearby hairdressers when he was struck by Hussain's car. She heard the collision and came out to see her fatally injured son in the road.

Grocer's son Hussain had been darting in and out of rush-hour traffic while racing against a Citroen Saxo.

At Manchester Crown Court, the father-of-two, of Milnrow Road, Shaw, near Oldham, was convicted of causing death by dangerous driving. Hussain was driving on a provisional licence, having had his full licence revoked when he was caught driving uninsured.

He had also been convicted of perverting justice after lying about his role in another accident. He was banned from driving for five years.

Hussain had denied the charge, blaming another motorist for pulling in front of him.