A 25-year-old driver has been remanded in custody to await his sentence after a jury found him guilty this morning of causing the deaths of three teenage girls in an horrific crash.

In September, 2006, Adam Anguige was racing another driver 27-year-old James Houston when Houston's Ford Fiesta crashed into the front of an on-coming lorry on Wakefield Road, Huddersfield.

The collision claimed the lives of Ursula Alokolaro, 16, from Heckmondwike, 16-year-old Natalie Donlan, from Dewsbury, and 15-year-old Gemma Cost, from Batley, who were all rear seat passengers in the Fiesta.

There was spontaneous applause in a packed public gallery as Judge Christopher Prince told Anguige, of White Leaf Road, Batley, that he faced a long prison sentence for his "absolutely appalling piece of driving" that night.

He had denied the three charges of causing death by dangerous driving but the jury returned unanimous guilty verdicts after less than three hours of deliberation.

Houston was himself so badly injured in the crash that he was not fit to stand trial, but another jury has already concluded that he also caused the girls' deaths by dangerous driving.

The 13-year-old Fiesta, which cost Houston just £150, had been overtaking Anguige's Vauxhall Nova, which was itself overtaking a Range Rover, when it went out of control on a left-hand bend and hit the on-coming lorry side-on.

Both Anguige and Houston, of Croft Cottage Lane, Huddersfield, will be sentenced together on a date to be fixed.