A motorist with 10 convictions for driving while banned caused a police car to crash in Worcester, a jury was told.

Craig Wright was at the wheel of a Ford Focus in Avon Road, Tolladine, when he did a handbrake turn and slewed across the carriageway during a chase, it was alleged.

The patrol car hit the Ford causing the airbags to inflate, but neither of the two officers was injured.

The driver ran off and disappeared down an alley near Don Road, said Stephen Davies, prosecuting.

He told Worcester Crown Court the Ford had been picked up on the M5 by an automatic number plate system.

The police patrol had spotted the car in Ambleside Drive at about 9pm on November 5.

PC Leon Westwood, who had seen photographs of Wright, identified him as the driver before the chase began and later picked him out on a video indentification procedure.

Wright, aged 28, who had been staying with friends in Teme Road, Worcester, denies dangerous driving and driving while disqualified.

Mr Davies said Wright, who declined to give evidence at court, gave police a statement in which he claimed to have an alibi for the night of the chase.

He insisted he was with fellow Liverpudlian Jake Porter at a Guy Fawkes bonfire on Pitchcroft.

They had met three girls and all five had gone back to the flat.

Building worker Mr Porter told the jury he was with Wright all night but his attempts to trace the girls to give evidence had been unsuccessful.

The prosecution said Wright – now living in Wellingford Avenue, Widnes, Cheshire – had a propensity for committing driving crimes between 2005 and 2011, which included having no insurance and convictions for dangerous driving and drink-driving.

Carmen Wilde, defending, maintained the jury could not be sure of the father-of-two’s guilt and should not be tempted to convict him because they assumed he was “low-life”.

She claimed he would suffer no further penalty if convicted because any jail term would run concurrently with the unexpired prison licence he was still serving.

The only motive he therefore had was to clear his name.

The trial continues.