DEFENDANT Matthew Ferguson passed his driving test just five days before the night he was arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving.

Ferguson, 18, of Little Heath Road, Christleton, was later charged with the serious offence even though his car was not involved in the crash.

Police believed he and Michael Wood were racing before Wood’s car spun off the road and collided with a tree, killing Tristan Cook and Dominic Arnold.

He faced the serious charge until June 2007, when it was reduced to dangerous driving after no evidence came to light of the pair racing.

A jury has now been given the option of finding him guilty of driving carelessly if they do not believe he was driving dangerously on December 9-10, 2006.

Ferguson, who was 17 at the time of the crash and has now turned 18, is currently working with his father because he cannot get a job elsewhere until after the trial.

He was doing a bricklaying course at West Cheshire College at the time of the crash and planned to join the Army.

Giving evidence at Chester Crown Court on Tuesday he said a hand brake turn he did on the Focus Car park in Tarvin Road that night was the first he had ever done.

Asked why he did it, he replied: “I am not too sure. I have never done one before and I just wanted to experience it really.”

He described his driving on the car park as ‘cautious’ and said he didn’t lose control of the car or get close to anything.

He said the fastest he drove on the A41 was about 66mph and he remembered seeing Michael Wood overtaking him at speed.

At Broxton car park he admitted the behaviour was ‘silly’. He also admitted doing five or six hand brake turns at the lorry turning circle and remembered seeing the HGV driven by prosecution witness Laurence Dowling.

Ferguson said he did not understand the Irish lorry driver’s claims that he reversed his VW Golf towards the truck while looking up at the cab aggressively.

He said that when he later pulled alongside Michael Wood’s VW Polo on the A41 between Broxton and Chester he was planning to overtake, but then realised it would take him too long to complete the manoeuvre and pulled back into his lane.

He said he was five to six car lengths behind Wood at all times leading up to the crash.

Ferguson told the court: “On the first corner Mike’s tyres came out a bit as he was turning, it was only a little jerk, perhaps he didn’t feel it.”

Mark LeBrocq, defending Wood, later questioned why Ferguson had not mentioned this in his interview with police, and only after hearing witness Daniel Wilson tell the court he saw Wood lose some control on the bend before the crash site.

Ferguson said: “I have got an image in my head, I don’t know why I didn’t tell them before.”

Describing the crash he said: “As he went round the bend it looked like the car was turning right, the wheels were facing the wrong way, then it went flipping and barrel rolling.”

Prosecutor Owen Edwards, cross-examining Ferguson, suggested that he had taken risks by performing hand brake turns in the same car park where other teenagers were moving between cars, some who were drunk.

Ferguson conceded it could have caused injury, but insisted: “The hand brake turns weren’t dangerous - they put no one in danger. No one complained about them so I would say it was safe driving.”

When Mr Edwards suggested Ferguson was showing off in his driving, the defendant said: “I’m not that type of person. I was just having a bit of fun, lads being lads.”

The case continues.