A MOTHER and daughter have relived a terrifying “road rage” ordeal when a van driver chased them along a main road through the Worcestershire countryside.

Caroline Phillips told Worcester Crown Court she had been driving with her 21-year-old daughter Emily on the A422 Worcester-Stratford Road when a VW Transporter van pulled out in front of her Renault Clio from the North Piddle junction.

She said she was forced to make an emergency stop, blew her horn then continued on towards Worcester.

In the rear-view mirror, she saw the van, driven by 56-year-old Christopher Ward, of Tall Trees, Flyford Flavell, near Pershore, turn round and follow her.

Ward denied a charge of dangerous driving on Friday, July 2, last year but the jury took under five minutes to find him guilty.

Mrs Phillips, aged 48, from Highcroft, Atch Lench, near Evesham, said the van came right up behind her, so close she could no longer see the number plate in her mirror, then dropped back several times, before pulling alongside and weaving, trying to nudge her car off the road.

It pulled ahead near the Upton Snodsbury village sign and turned around then drove back straight at her on her side of the road, just veering away at the last minute.

“It was very scary,” she said. “I was petrified. I didn’t want to stop because the driver looked crazy and we were two women on our own. When he drove towards us, he got so close I could see his face.”

She said she had put her headlights on full beam, switched on her hazard warning lights and waved her arm out of the window to attract attention but the road was quiet and no one stopped.

Daughter Emily said she dialled police as the chase went on for nearly two miles. She said: “The driver looked really angry and he was shouting and shaking his fist. I was terrified.”

Ward said he was pulling out of the North Piddle junction when he saw the Renault approaching with its left indicator flashing and assumed it was turning. He denied trying to nudge the car off the road and said he had not driven at it directly.

Stephen Davis, prosecuting, said Ward had seen the red mist in front of his eyes when Mrs Phillips blew her car horn and it had turned into an incident of “road rage”.

Ward’s bail was allowed to continue while a pre-sentence report is prepared. He is due to be sentenced on Monday, June 20, and was immediately banned from driving.