A MOTORIST deliberately drove head-on at three cyclists to either force them off the road or "scare the living daylights" out of them, a court heard.

Dean Goble, 40, is accused of targeting the cyclists in three separate incidents 10 days apart in Wiltshire and Gloucestershire.

The three cyclists, David Jones, Jeremy Maiden and Amanda Adams, were each "minding their own business" when Goble allegedly swerved at them from the opposite direction in his V-reg Peugeot 206.

The first incident was captured on a camera mounted on Mr Jones's helmet which shows the car swerving out of the way at the last minute and disappearing into the distance.

Goble, of Parkway, Siddington, Cirencester, Gloucestershire, is on trial at Swindon Crown Court accused of three charges of dangerous driving, which he denies.

Prosecutor Michael Butt told the court: "Each of these cyclists will tell you how they were cycling along a road minding their own business when they were approached head-on by a dark coloured Peugeot 206.

"Each of them will tell you how, as the car approached them on the opposite side of the road and when the driver saw the cyclist, the car swerved over the central line of the road making straight for the cyclist.

"It will be plain from the evidence you will hear from these three cyclists that this was a deliberate act by a driver who either wished to scare the living daylights out of the cyclist or perhaps, even worse, run them off the road.

"The car veered right across the central carriageway aiming at the cyclist and at the last possible moment the car swerved away from the cyclist with the horn sounding loudly.

"The car then disappears into the distance."

Mr Butt told the court the incidents in 2014 happened on April 30 on Ashton Road in Ashton Keynes; on May 7 on an unclassified road between Ewen and Cirencester; and on May 8 on High Road, Ashton Keynes.

Following the first incident, Mr Jones took the footage from his camera to the police. The registration plate of Goble's car was identified from the film and he was arrested on May 20.

"When he was shown the video he accepted it was his car and he accepted he was the driver, and he tried to claim that all he was doing was manoeuvring around potholes in the road and there was no dangerous driving involved," Mr Butt said.

"The evidence will show, the Crown suggest, that this was a completely false claim made by him.

"He was to deny he was the person responsible for the other two incidents."

Mr Butt added: "If, at the end of the day, having assessed all the evidence, you are sure it was the defendant in each case who drove the car deliberately at the cyclists with the intention of scaring the living daylights out of them or running them off the road, you will have little difficulty in finding him guilty in each count of dangerous driving."

Mr Jones told the court he was riding his bike along the 50mph Ashton Road when a blue car suddenly came towards him from the opposite direction.

"It swerved into my direction and when it was very close to me it swerved away from me and continued down Ashton Road," he told the court.

"I believe when the car passed me I would assess its speed at about 50mph. I clearly felt the wind of the vehicle as it went by. The driver sounded their horn throughout the manoeuvre.

"The whole incident was over in less than two seconds. To tell you the truth it happened so quickly and it was all a bit of a shock.

"I think if I had veered to the right I would have been in collision with the vehicle. The car came directly towards me.

"I was quite shocked, more so after the event. As a cyclist I am used to people misjudging my speed or road position."

Mr Maiden described seeing a Peugeot hatchback car approach him at between 40mph and 50mph from the opposite direction as he cycled home to Cirencester from Kemble.

"It was travelling at some speed. It veered across the road straight towards me with the horn continuously held and at the last second it veered away from me," Mr Maiden said.

"I had to stop and for the split second it passed me - not that I was able to because of the speed - I could have touched the car. It was within an arm's length."

Mr Maiden added: "I found it very traumatic because for a split second you think the car is going to hit you. As it got closer to me - at the very last second - it swerved back towards the other side of the road.

"This was the second time this had happened to me on the same stretch of road. This happened seven weeks' previously, almost identical really - the same manoeuvre."

The third cyclist, Mrs Adams, said she saw a dark coloured Peugeot 206 approaching from the opposite direction and first thought it was her husband as he drives an identical car.

"The car came diagonally towards me and at that point I could see the person and I thought they were smiling and they were tooting the horn and I only had the time to think that they were going to hit me," Mrs Adams told the court.

"I just thought I was waiting for an impact. I thought it was coming straight for me. I was just waiting for the worst and I thought I was going to die."

The trial was adjourned.