A garden centre boss who has already been jailed for drink-driving will now go on trial for conspiring to pervert the course of justice over the same offence.
Thomas Hayes, 45-year-old managing director of Hayes Garden World in Ambleside, Cumbria, received an 18-week jail sentence last July after crashing his Porsche in November 2010 when more than four times over the legal drink-drive limit.

The sentence was passed after Mr Hayes lost an appeal, in which he maintained that he had in fact been a passenger in the car at the time and that his friend Derek Henderson had been the one driving. Mr Hayes claimed that Mr Henderson had gone off after the crash, which was why Mr Hayes was the only person seen in the car by witnesses.

Details of the case were later sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions, and Mr Hayes and Mr Henderson have now appeared at Carlisle Crown Court where both pleaded not guilty to conspiring to mislead the police and the courts over the identity of the driver. Mr Hayes continues to maintain that Mr Henderson was driving.

The two men were remanded on unconditional bail and will go on trial on January 13 next year.