A MAN accused of deliberately ploughing his car into a group of people dropping their children off at a Stourbridge school has maintained to a jury he was not behind the wheel of the vehicle.

The car struck several people including two young children while pinning two men against a wall but fortunately they all escaped serious injury.

Kevin Campbell is alleged to have driven at the group outside the school in Hob Green Road because of "bad bood" between him and some of the people.

But, at Wolverhampton Crown Court, he stressed to the five man-seven woman jury that at the time of the incident he was at his mother's home adding: "I have no reason to lie."

Campbell, of Vickers Walk, Stourbridge, added: "I am not lying to wriggle my way out of my responsibility for what happened that day. I was not in the car. It has nothing to do with me."

Nigel Stelling, prosecuting, has told the jury it was inevitable people in the group - one frightened woman threw a two-year-old girl over a garden wall for safety - would be hit by the car.

They had heard the vehicle being revved loudly before it mounted the pavement and the victims were left with bumps, cuts and bruises.

The decision of Campbell to mount the pavement and deliberately drive at the group was an attempt to cause each and everyone of them serious injury, alleged Mr Stelling.

But Campbell, aged 30, said in evidence to the jury he had not gone to the scene to "sort out" any trouble adding "I don't know who was driving that day."

He said that even if there had been problems involving members of the group it had nothing to do with him. "I was not involved in that trouble. I was not going to sort anyone out."

Campbell maintained: "I am not lying about where I was that morning. I have no reason to lie. I was at my mother's home."

Mandy Campbell, his mother, said Kevin arrived at her home at around 8.30am and left at 9.15am.

She told the court: "I did not sense he was upset or angry about anything. He was in a happy mood."

Campbell has pleaded not guilty to dangerous driving and to seven charges of attempting to cause grievous bodily harm.

It has been alleged Campbell was immediately recognised inside the car by women in the group before he reversed the vehicle and drove away from the scene.

After his arrest he said "very little" in interview with police officers, added Mr Stelling, and he asserted he had not driven at the group in his bright red Ford car.

But he alleged he was behind the wheel because of a "falling out and bad blood" that existed between Campbell and members of the group.

The case in front of Judge Barry Berlin is continuing and the jury is expected to retire and consider the evidence on Wednesday.