A MAN from Farnham believed to have been blowing up balloons at the wheel of his van just seconds before veering across the road, crashing into another van and killing its passenger, a married dad-of-one, has been jailed for three years.

Rhys Hargreaves, 24, of Blackheath Road in the Sandy Hill estate, 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 became so distracted from the road, and Hargreaves began crying in the dock as family members read out tributes and victim impact statements in court.

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

She told Reading Crown 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."

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

He was also seen throwing away used nitrous oxide canisters and equipment to pump up balloons 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, Berkshire, and died just five minutes from the front door of his family house where he lived with his wife and two-year-old daughter.

Prosecuter Kim Preston told Judge Paul Dugdale that the head-on crash happened at around 8.15pm on the A3095 in Crowthorne, Berkshire.

She said: “Andy Sims knew this piece of road very well and the two of them were chatting when they had the misfortune to encounter Rhys Hargreaves driving a van owned by Sani-Duct, a company owned by the defendant’s father.

“Mr Sims saw the headlights of the defendant’s van and thought he was trying to overtake the car in front of him.”

Mr Sims flashed his lights and sounded his horn, and moved his Volkswagen van to the right hoping to avoid the oncoming van as its driver Hargreaves remained distracted.

Ms Preston described the collision as an “inevitability” with Mr Sims’ van coming to a stop immediately and Mr Holmes being killed instantly. Hargreaves’ van came to rest on a grass verge.

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, in a police interview one month on from the crash Hargreaves admitted there was no lorry and told officers his friend who had fallen asleep was distracting 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 ballon 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.”

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

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, 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.”

Hargreaves waved goodbye to family members as he was sentenced to three years in prison 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 nitrous oxide canisters.