A BOY racer has been found guilty of dangerous driving after he chased a terrified pedestrian along a pavement at high speed after randomly picking on him late at night.

Woolwich Crown Court heard Sam Ryan, aged 19, warned Chris Beattie he was going to “get a beating” before mounting the kerb in his Vauxhall Corsa and driving directly at him.

In the early hours of May 1 last year Mr Beattie was walking back from a night out along Albion Road, Bexleyheath, when he spotted the car.

As he reached the roundabout leading into Townley Road, a dark coloured Corsa with a driver and three passengers pulled up next to him and offered him a lift.

Giving evidence, Mr Beattie said: “I thought it was a strange request and I obviously declined. I said ‘Thank you anyway’.”

Jurors heard the car then reversed the wrong way around a roundabout towards three girls.

Mr Beattie dialled 999 before the occupants of the Corsa returned asking for a lighter. He told them he did not smoke.

The jury heard the vehicle drove off but performed a U-turn and the driver asked Mr Beattie the way to Dartford, before becoming “abusive”.

Mr Beattie told the court: “He said: ‘You had better not be on the phone to the police or you are going to get a beating’.

“I continued to walk and the operator could hear what was happening and he said: ‘Run now, bang on someone’s door and try and get away’.”

Ryan, of Maple Road, Dartford, is then said to have driven onto the pavement and driven directly at Mr Beattie.

Mr Beattie claims he was forced to run into the middle of the road to escape and “had to keep zig-zagging” as Ryan pursued him.

Ryan was sentenced to nine months at a youth offenders’ institution.