The fatal crash which killed Charlotte Smoker was on the M25. Library picture

by Keith Hunt

An illegal immigrant was using his mobile phone when he crashed into the stationary car of a teenage girl on a motorway more than nine years ago, a court heard.

Charlotte Smoker's Fiat Cinquecento had earlier been forced into the barrier of the central reservation by another car and was jutting out into the fast lane.

Other traffic managed to brake and swerve around the car before Zahid Masood, who only had a provisional driving licence to drive in this country, smashed into it in his Ford Focus, Maidstone Crown Court was told.

Masood, of Heron Way, Lower Stoke, denies causing death by dangerous driving.

Prosecutor Allister Walker said Masood, now 47, was a Pakistani national at the time calling himself Ahmed Mukhtar, of Battle Road, Erith. He had told the DVLA he was born in South Africa.

"In fact, the defendant was an illegal entrant into the United Kingdom," he said. "After the collision he left the United Kingdom.

"He told police he returned after marrying his Romanian partner in 2007. He returned as Zahid Sheikh Masood, his true identity."

He was arrested in November last year.

Maidstone Crown Court, where Masood's case is being heard

Miss Smoker, a 19-year-old air hostess, from Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire, was driving from Guildford, Surrey, to Stansted on the M25 in the early afternoon of November 3 2003.

Two men in a van saw the Fiat avoid a lorry joining the motorway at junction five by speeding up.

They next saw the car further down the road near junction four at Shoreham straddling the central reservation and the outside lane. Miss Smoker appeared to be making a phone call.

Mr Walker said Miss Smoker was "adrift" and too afraid to get out of her car.

A lorry driver saw the Fiat with its hazard warning lights flashing. He described Masood"s car passing him at an estimated 80-90mph, heading straight for the Fiat.

"He saw the collision," said Mr Walker. "The car braked but it was far too late. It collided with the rear of the Fiat and pushed it into the central barrier."

The Ford Focus, also containing Masood's future wife Marinela, spun around and was facing against the traffic. An ambulance was called but Miss Smoker died soon afterwards.

Mr Walker said Masood was working for Universal Workforce in Belvedere, which provides staff for factories, and did not have permission to drive the company's Focus.

He was "dangerously distracted" at the time of the collision by making a phone call to a landline, the jury was told.

The prosecutor said it was alleged Miss Smoker died as a result of Masood's dangerous driving.

The crash happened at about 2.50pm and a call from Masood's phone was timed at 2.49 and 23 seconds. It lasted for 35 seconds.

Masood later claimed his partner, who was also an illegal immigrant, was making the phone call on his phone to a friend at the time, speaking in Romanian.

But Mr Walker said phone records were checked and it was determined that the call was made to an Ashford company which supplied manual workers to the food industry.

The operations manager there told police she dealt with Masood at the company he worked for, Universal Workforce.

"The prosecution case is it was the defendant who used the phone and not his partner," said Mr Walker.

The trial continues.