A motorist believed to have been blowing up laughing gas balloons at the wheel just seconds before veering across the road, crashing into another van and killing its passenger, has been jailed for three years.

Rhys Hargreaves drifted into oncoming traffic while driving to work with a colleague before causing the death of 36-year-old father Garry Holmes, who had been helping a friend pick up a bouncy castle for a charity event the next day.

Mr Holmes' family were told they may never find out the real reason why Hargreaves, 24, became so distracted from the road ahead of him in his white Ford Transit and caused his immediate death.

Hargreaves lied to police about having his vision blurred by a lorry, telling officers it had dumped water on his windscreen but later claimed his friend was not wearing a seatbelt and was having a fit while sleeping.

He was also seen throwing away a device to fill balloons with nitrous oxide in the wake of the crash.

Following a string of fabricated stories Hargreaves finally admitted causing Mr Holmes' death by dangerous driving.

Mr Holmes, a roofer by trade, had been helping firefighter Andy Sims to collect a bouncy castle on May 14, 2015, from a fire station for a fundraiser the following day.

He never returned to his home in Sandhurst and died just five minutes from the front door of his family house where he lived with his wife Katie and two-year-old daughter Violet.

Prosecuter Kim Preston told Judge Paul Dugdale that the crash happened at around 8.15pm on the A3095 Foresters Way in Crowthorne.

She said: "Mr Sims collected Garry from his home where he lived with his wife Katie and daughter Violet.

"They travelled to Slough and collected the bouncy castle and they were driving back to Sandhurst to take Garry back to his family.

"Andy Sims knew this piece of road very well and the two of them were chatting when they had the misfortune to encounter this defendant.

"Rhys Hargreaves was driving a van owned by the company Sani-Duct, a company owned by the defendant's father," she told the judge sitting at Reading Crown Court.

"He was travelling with a colleague and friend George Cain and they were going to work that evening."

The two vans were travelling along Foresters Way, described by Ms Preston as a straight section and a rural carriageway with a national speed limit.

She said: "Mr Sims saw the headlights of the defendant's van and thought he was trying to overtake the car in front of him.

"In those moments he tried to work out what the driver was doing and assumed he would try pulling back in sharply and the cars around him started to take action accordingly.

"Mr Sims flashed the vehicle coming towards him and sounded his horn and he had to make a decision as to where to place his vehicle."

Mr Sims moved his Volkswagen van to the right hoping to avoid the oncoming white van being driven by Hargreaves as he remained distracted.

Ms Preston described the collision as an 'inevitability' with Mr Sims' van coming to a stop immediately.

Mr Holmes was killed instantly.

Hargreaves was then spotted throwing items away from the van straight after the head-on crash, which were later revealed to be used nitrous oxide canisters and equipment to pump up balloons.

Ms Preston continued: "When Mr Sims spoke to the paramedic he wanted to know if the driver on the other side had had a heart attack or collapsed at the wheel as it was the only explanation behind losing control.

"That was not the case. The defendant got straight out of his van, as did his passenger who suffered cuts to his head. His passenger said 'what the f*** have you done'."

Hargreaves, while sat in a police car, fabricated a story that a passing lorry had dumped water on his windscreen and caused him to lose sight of the road ahead of him, culminating in the collision.

However, no witnesses recalled any rain or lorries in the build up to the horror crash on May 14 of last year.

In a police interview one month on from the crash Hargreaves admitted there was no lorry and told officers his friend had fallen asleep, which had distracted him.

Ms Preston, who branded Hargreaves' driving as 'shocking' said: "Items retrieved from the scene included a cracker device. What was found in the vehicle were 14 canisters of nitrous oxide.

"Balloons were found in the van and a burst balloon was found in situ to suggest it had already been used.

"In the complete absence of an explanation from the defendant it may well have been that these objects caused the distraction.

"Whether or not the defendant was trying to put a balloon on a canister or passing something to Mr Cain, we do not know. The Crown says it is a distinct possibility."

As family members read out tributes and victim impact statements in court, Hargreaves began crying in the dock.

Mr Holmes' best friend Mr Sims said: "We grew up together from the age of 11. I have sympathy for you and your family but you showed no remorse and no compassion.

"You won't tell the truth about what caused the accident that night. Garry was a person I spoke to when life was difficult and he isn't here anymore."

Mr Holmes' wife Katie told Hargreaves his actions had resulted in her having to tell their two-year-old daughter every day that she will never see her father again.

The family-of-three were due to complete a deal to buy a new home just 12 hours after her husband tragically died.

Mrs Holmes told the court : "As a family, life will never be the same again. Losing my soulmate... the loss is incomprehensible. No more texts through the day, no more dinners together, no more sitting on the sofa watching films, no more arguing about whose turn it is to do the dusting.

"Violet was 21 months old when he last put her to bed and tucked her in. He only saw one of her birthdays. Garry will never take her to school, walk her down the aisle or be her protector.

"The loss for me is bad enough but for our daughter it will be utterly immeasurable. She asks me every day if she can have a cuddle with daddy and every single day I have to explain that she can't. So far I'm on 565 days of telling her that."

John Jones QC, defending, revealed Hargreaves had told doctors he wished it were him who had died in the crash instead of Mr Holmes.

It was also suggested Hargreaves drifted into oncoming traffic because he believed his friend, wearing no seatbelt, was having a fit.

He said: "The family's loss is irreplaceable, their grief unimaginable and frustration understandable. The victim personal statements made for most moving listening.

"The case has thrown up various theories as to how this collision occurred. We may well never definitely know what happened and why."

Addressing Mr Holmes' family members - who sat in the seats a jury would have taken to had Hargreaves not changed his plea on Monday - Judge Dugdale told them no sentence he passed would ever make up for their loss.

"I hope that the end of these proceedings and the fact Rhys Hargreaves has admitted his guilt will bring you a degree of closure and form part of a healing process insofar as someone can heal from such a loss."

Sentencing Hargreaves to three years in prison Judge Dugdale added: "Initially witnesses thought it was an overtaking manoeuvre but they said it soon became apparent it wasn't.

"It wasn't an event that took place in a split second. Andy Sims took evasive action. It is clear to me he did all he possibly could have done to avoid the collision."

Hargreaves, of Blackheath Road, Farnham, Surrey, waved goodbye to family members as he was jailed and was also disqualified from driving for five-and-a-half years.

He was also sentenced to another month in prison, to run concurrently, for possession of cannabis which police also found along with the notorious oxide canisters.