A 29-year-old father of two young children was killed when an articulated lorry smashed head-first into his car on the wrong side of the road, a court has heard.

Luke Ware, from Foulden, near Thetford, died less than half an hour after the collision with Grigore Anton's blue Scania truck at 6.35pm on October 9 last year.

Anton is on trial at Norwich Crown Court for causing death by dangerous driving.

In the opening statement from prosecutor Peter Gair, the jury heard that Anton was driving on the wrong side of the road when the collision occurred with Mr Ware's Daihatsu 4x4.

Mr Gair added the statement provided by Anton to police would be shown to be neither credible nor reliable.

He said: 'Whilst he has never denied he is the driver of the lorry, he has indicated he was not to blame for the collision and therefore did not drive dangerously at all.

'It is the Crown's case that this defendant is criminally responsible for that death and criminally responsible for that collision.'

The court heard Anton, a self-employed lorry driver from Romania, was travelling from Birmingham to Belgium in his personally owned truck before stopping at Foulden to purchase tyres from an eBay seller.

Anton then drove south, towards Northwold, in his left-hand drive truck when he came to a right-hand bend in the road with Mr Ware travelling towards Foulden in the other direction.

The court heard Anton claimed to have seen an oncoming car around 150m ahead of him, without headlights on, and moved to swerve to avoid a collision, only for the car to do the same and hit the truck head-on.

Acting Sergeant Lee Smart, of Norfolk and Suffolk Roads Policing, said evidence showed this was not the case, with evidence of Mr Ware's headlights being switched on and tyre marks showing both vehicles were on the same side of the road.

The collision between the truck, travelling at around 30mph, and Mr Ware's car caused the car to bounce backwards, causing gouge marks in the road.

The court also heard Mr Ware was not wearing a seatbelt when the collision occurred and was above the legal limit for both cocaine and cannabis.

The trial continues.