THE owner of a car sales business escaped death by inches after a thief who had just test-driven a BMW made off in the vehicle by driving straight at him.

Martin Arnold, 51, who runs MGA Motors on Kidderminster's Wolverh-ampton Road was forced to dive out of the way and was struck on the hand by the 318 SE, worth £7,000, which sped off towards Wolverhampton.

Mr Arnold said the incident, the first of its kind in more than 15 years at the garage, had left him badly shaken. "I'm convinced if I hadn't jumped out of the way the man wouldn't have stopped. I'd had have been left with a couple of broken legs, some broken ribs and he'd still have got away with the car."

The theft at about 4.15pm on Saturday came after two men, who arrived in a silver Alfa Romeo convertible, called at the showroom between noon and 1pm.

"They looked around and said they would visit some other garages and call back later," said Mr Martin. "They came back around 4pm and one of the men asked to test drive the BMW. We set off for Stourbridge with me in the passenger seat and came back along the A449."

The man said his companion was a mechanic and would like to look under the bonnet. Mr Martin got out and was about 4ft away at the rear of the vehicle when he heard the engine being revved.

"It was reversed and I jumped out of the way. I ran towards the front of it and when it started going forwards I stood in front of it."

But he said he was forced to jump out of the way when it was driven straight at him and the BMW and Alfa Romeo made off along the A449.

Kidderminster Police are investigat-ing the incident. The men are described as black and smartly dressed. One was around 6ft 5ins tall and the other 6ft.