A WAREHOUSE manager was spotted “racing” a work colleague who died in a horror crash on the A470, a court was told.

Matthew Bennett, 19, died from injuries suffered in a road crash which the prosecution allege was the result of a “high speed chase” between him and his work colleague Rhys Davies on a stretch of the rural road near Caersws.

Prosecutor Sion ap Mihangel told Mold Crown Court that both men had finished their shifts at the Colomer Munmany Europe Ltd factory in Carno and were making their way back home along the A470.

Mr Bennett overtook two cars in his Ford Fiesta and the driver of one of them said he thought both men’s cars were side by side at the point they vanished over a rise in the road.

Farmer Johnny Jones, who was putting his sheep into a field, saw the two cars driving past at speed and formed the view that the drivers were racing each other, said Mr ap Mihangel.

An oncoming van driver then saw Mr Bennett lose control of his car as he approached him on a bend and said he was being closely followed by the second car (Davies’ VW Golf).

He concluded that the pair were “racing”, said the prosecutor.

Davies, 28, of Parc Hafod, Tregynon, near Newtown, Powys, denies causing the death of Matthew Bennett by driving dangerously on the A470 at Caersws on October 8, 2016.

The trial continues.