Joyriding youths tried to trick police by dragging an unconscious pal into the driving seat of a crashed car in which another teenager lay dead, an inquest was told.

Police became suspicious that the driver and another passenger had tried to cover their tracks and fled the scene when they discovered 16-year-old Paul Trotter in the driver's seat of the wrecked Vauxhall Cavalier but saw his legs were still in the footwell on the passenger side.

In the back seat police found the body of 17-year-old trainee mechanic Peter Blythe, of Camberley Mount, Holme Wood, Bradford, who had died from severe head injuries. Trapped by his side was his cousin Paddy Doyle and a fourth man Aaron Barnsley who was half in the car.

The inquest in Leeds heard evidence that there had originally been six youths in the stolen Vauxhall Cavalier and that they had earlier been "messing about" and doing handbrake turns.

The other two people in the car were believed to be Peter's other cousin Dean Doyle and Jamie Bradley, said investigating police officer PC Frances Brown.

Accident investigator John Green described how the driver lost control on a sharp bend in freezing fog, causing the car to spin across Roker Lane, near Pudsey, and crash into a stone wall in December 2001.

The wall pierced the side of the car, killing Peter and seriously injuring Paul Trotter, who survived despite broken bones, a bloodclot on his brain, a severed ear and having to have his spleen removed.

In a statement read to the hearing, Kerrie Portman, a friend of the youths, said that Dean Doyle had later confessed to her that he had been driving.

She said they had all met up at the home of Julie Noble in West Bowling on the night of the crash and they had been drinking and taking drugs until a group of them left to go to Buttershaw.

She said she had gone to bed but was woken in the early hours by Julie Noble asking if she had any money because Dean Doyle needed a taxi, he sounded hurt and was crying on his mobile phone.

She said Dean Doyle later came back to the house and told her it was his fault that the car crashed because he had been "pilling" but he said he was not going any faster than 30mph.

PC Brown said she believed those who had fled the scene were responsible for trying to make it look as though Paul Trotter had been driving.

"I believe the people who fled from the scene pulled him into the driver's seat to confuse police," she said.

PC Brown said a mobile phone used to call the emergency services from the crash scene had a number that matched one under the name Dean D on Peter's sister's phone. She said a voice analysis test also matched the caller's voice and that of Dean Doyle in a taped police interview.

But Dean Doyle denied he had been anywhere near the car and claimed he had gone to bed at the house in West Bowling after drinking Lambrusco and Martini and taking ecstacy.

In police interviews Dean Doyle and Paddy Doyle said another man George Runciman, of Holme Wood, had been driving but PC Brown said inquiries had later cleared Mr Runciman.

Police were advised by the Crown Prosecution Service to charge all five youths with aggravated vehicle taking causing death but the CPS later dropped those charges because of insufficient evidence, she said.

Coroner David Hinchliffe said he had called the five youths to attend the hearing but not one of them had turned up.

Mr Hinchliffe said all five of them had given conflicting evidence to police and had gone to "tremendous lengths" to avoid detection which had been successful.

He said: "This has not had any salutary effect on those individuals, they are still taking cars.

"No-one has heeded a lesson from this. What is appalling is that Dean was Peter's cousin, not just an associate, and he still hasn't had the decency to explain what happened."

Mr Hinchliffe told Peter's distraught family that there was no suggestion that Peter was instrumental in stealing the car and there had been no sign of alcohol or drugs in his blood.

Recording an open verdict he said: "If there had been sufficient evidence to say what happened in the lead up to the crash I would have no concern about recording an unlawful killing but those responsible seem to have got away unscathed.

"It would be an insult to record a verdict of accidental death and would be offensive to Peter's memory."

But he added: "Neither I or the police have any doubt as to who was behind the wheel."