COMPANY boss Simon Conder's high-speed test drive in a powerful sports car ended in a five-vehicle crash, a court was told yesterday.

Harrogate magistrates heard how Conder's wife, Lyn, had to be airlifted to hospital with a broken neck and pelvic fractures.

He also sustained pelvis fractures after a drive from the showrooms of Harrogate Horseless Carriages ended on the town's southern bypass and with the disintegration of the £40,000 TVR Tuscan.

Peter Scott, prosecuting, said witnesses had estimated the speed of the TVR at up to 90mph.

A Peugeot 306 driven by Lorraine Marsden, 18, from Cookridge, Leeds, bore the brunt of the impact. She escaped with severe bruising and whiplash while her sister, Pauline, 21, sustained fractures to an arm, a foot and a cheekbone.

Mr Scott said Conder, 45, of Lakeside, Acaster Malbis, York, had been seen to skid right and then left as he drove east. He then lost control of the TVR, spinning into the path of oncoming vehicles.

Conder pleaded guilty to dangerous driving.

Court chairman Mike Garnett told Conder, who runs a wood veneers company, that the Bench had decided not to send him to Crown Court for a stiffer sentence.

But probation reports covering all sentencing options were needed.

Mr Garnett adjourned the hearing until February 10 and issued a driving ban on Conder, who travels 50,000 miles a year and has a 27-year exemplary driving record.