A MAN lied to police about a fatal crash, claiming he had not been in a car which smashed into an Audi, killing its passenger.

On September 9, 2019 Ayanle Hassan was a front seat passenger in an Audi driven by Ahmed Haider, who was racing a BMW driven by Zekeriye Mohammed at high speed around the streets of Bolton at 11.30pm.

"They had no regard for road users. They overtook other vehicles that were in their way," Fiona Clancy, prosecuting, told a jury at Bolton Crown Court.

On St Helens Road the vehicles collided, with the Audi smashing into the BMW, killing 24-year-old Idiris Mohammed, a rear seat passenger in the BMW who was Zekeriye Mohammed's brother.

While Zekeriye Mohammed remained at the scene with his fatally injured brother, before police arrived Audi driver Haider had run off.

"At that stage police did not know his identity," said Miss Clancy.

Another motorist took Hassan, who was also injured in the collision, to the Royal Bolton Hospital for treatment.

"It's the Crown's case this defendant [Hassan] knew full well the drivers of the Audi and BMW were racing each other, that they were driving dangerously," said Miss Clancy.

Hassan, aged 28, of no fixed address, denies perverting the course of justice but the prosecution claim that, when he spoke to police in hospital he knew the identities of the drivers and that someone had been badly injured in the collision.

"He told a series of lies in an attempt to mislead the police and to deliberately cause confusion as to what had happened and to frustrate police inquiries," said Miss Clancy.

Hassan was recorded on police body-worn cameras stating that he was a rear passenger in the BMW and claimed that he did not know the people in the Audi.

Police later established, through DNA found on the Audi's airbag, that Haider had been driving the vehicle and in September last year Haider and Zekeriye Mohammed were both jailed for the parts they played in the fatal crash.

When formally questioned by police Hassan handed in a prepared statement claiming he had not deliberately intended to mislead police, citing the injuries he had suffered himself and the medication he had been given before speaking to the officers at hospital.

"He accepts that his statement to police that he was a rear seat passenger in the BMW was deliberately false, but he still denies he had any intention to pervert the course of justice," said Miss Clancy.

The trial continues.