A DAY or a life spent in prison will never compensate for the loss of “the best son anybody could have”.

Those were the sentiments last night of Richard Waddington’s father after seeing the jailing of the drunk, uninsured learner driver who caused for his son’s death.

Frank Yeung, a friend of the man he killed, was jailed at Oxford Crown Court for two years after admitting a charge of causing death by careless driving at an earlier hearing.

Having downed two measures of spirits, he set out to drive Mr Waddington to a restaurant, but lost control of his two-seat Honda S2000 sports car on the A4074 at Sandford-on-Thames and veered off the road on December 4.

The 23-year-old only held just a provisional driving licence, fake insurance, had no L-plates, and was over the drink-driving alcohol limit.

Yeung had 108 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood. The legal limit is 80mg.

Mr Waddington, 27, had been celebrating securing a promotion at computer company SunGard, based at Milton Park, near Abingdon.

His father Clive said: “There’s no closure.

“I think about Richard every day.

“Every morning when I wake up I think about him and several times during the day. I miss him horrendously.”

Richard Waddington moved to Oxford five years ago, after graduating from Nottingham University with a first class degree in electronic engineering.

He had just moved into a flat in Sandford and had met Oxford Brookes student Yeung through a shared love of golf.

Mr Waddington, who lives in Chelmsford, Essex, said: “He was absolutely happy with the world, with life and with work.

“He was friendly with everybody, outgoing but without being brash.

“He would spend his last penny on a friend who needed help.

“He was the best son anybody could have.”

Mr Waddington said he had no ill-feeling towards the man responsible for his son’s death.

He said: “It could be a day or the rest of his life (in prison).

“We’ve all effectively suffered with what happened. There’s no bitterness.”

Matthew Walsh, prosecuting, said Yeung had just entered the dual carriageway from the Sandford slip road and was travelling at up to 56mph when the car began to veer off the road.

He said a Sandford resident “heard the sound of a car she thought was being driven rather idiotically. She used the term: ‘ragging it’”.

Colin McCarragher, defending, said: “The last person (Yeung) wanted to harm was Richard Waddington.

“We’ve all lost a good man. He was an outstanding young man, set to make a significant contribution to our society.”

But Judge Anthony King told Yeung, of Titup Hall Drive, Wood Farm, Oxford, on Friday: “When you finish your sentence, you will be able to go back, to all intents and purposes, to your future and he has none – and they have lost someone who can never be replaced.

“The reason you are responsible is you drank, and having drunk, you got into a motor vehicle and on a dark winter’s evening you put your foot down too hard and you lost control, such that you went off the road.”

Yeung was also disqualified from driving for three years.