Birmingham Crown Court heard that the head-on collision caused by Antonio Boparan Singh left one-year-old Cerys Edwards' brain damaged, paralysed and unable to breathe without a ventilator. Five others were seriously injured in the accident that took place two years ago.

Judge Frank Chapman told Boparan yesterday: "You should expect a custodial sentence at the top end of the two-year scale." Technical information from the "black box" recorder device fitted in the Range Rover Sport's air bag was downloaded and used to prosecute Boparan, son of Ranjit and Baljinder, who own Boparan Holdings ltd, a chicken supplier.

The millionaire couple featured in the 2007 Sunday Times Rich list with an estimated fortune of 130 million pounds. The recorder device notes the car's performance on a 10-second loop and is predominantly used by engineers to diagnose problems. In the event of a crash it freezes and stores the information at the point of impact, giving the car's speed, engine speed, the angle of the brake and accelerator pedals and what gear it was in.