A Congolese asylum seeker from New Malden was jailed for five-and-a-half years today after his car mounted a pavement and hit a South African rugby fan as he walked home after watching his team win the World Cup.

Jimmy Katende, 31, of Potters Grove, had no licence or insurance and was more than two-and-a-half times over the legal drink drive limit when he hit Hugh Morton, 34, at 4.25am on October 20 last year in Kingston Road, near Wimbledon Chase station.

Mr Morton was on his way back to his home in Ethelbert Road, Raynes Park, after watching South Africa beat England at a pub in Wimbledon. He died at the scene.

Kingston Crown Court heard that Katende, who fled Congo in 1999 was refused asylum to stay in the UK in 2001, had also been watching the World Cup final.

He had two Jack Daniels and coke before leaving the pub "tipsy" at midnight.

A nearly empty bottle of Courvoisier was also found by police in Katende's jacket pocket.

Prosecutor Philip Bennetts, said Katende was driving at approximately 40mph when his car hit a bollard, lost control and mounted the pavement, hitting Mr Morton.

Mr Bennetts said all who knew Mr Morton held him in "high regard" with more than 100 tributes on yourlocalguardian.co.uk a testament to his character.

Katende's solicitor Caroline Haughey, said he had made a "grotesque error of judgement".

"He will live with the death of another man on his conscious for the rest of his life," she said.

Sentencing, Judge Fergus Mitchell described Katende as "hopelessly drunk" and his actions as "utterly inexcusable".

"This was the most grave failing on your part that caused this collision with this innocent man," he said.

"Once you got into that car, I would say an incident was inevitable. As it was, you killed somebody."

Judge Mitchell also recommended that Katende be deported after serving his sentence.