An uninsured driver accused of causing the death of a man after a crash on the A2 claimed that at the time he was with a "jinn" – an Arabic word for a spirit – a jury heard.

Shovan Sobahan lost control of his Citroen and it hit the central reservation on a straight stretch of the road near Dartford early one morning in May 2020.

But the 26-year-old, who had been warned by doctors not to drive because his medicine made him drowsy, could remember nothing of the accident.

Now a jury at Maidstone Crown Court has heard how 25 minutes later a Post Office van ploughed into a lorry which was shielding Mr Sobahan's stranded car.

At the wheel was John Maddex, who was using a banking app on his mobile phone as he failed to take evasive action.

Now Mr Sobahan, from Edmonton, north London, has been acquitted of causing Mr Maddex's death by either careless driving or driving without insurance.

Prosecutor Tim Forster said: "The first collision was at about 4am. Mr Sobahan was driving his Citroen C4 when he crashed into the central reservation of the A2 on the outskirts of Dartford.

"He was in the coastbound lane and was a 40-minute drive from where he lived.

"The defendant can't assist as to how this crash came about. But his vehicle hit the central reservation and span and came to rest facing the wrong way, across the slow and middle lanes."

The prosecutor said other motorists arrived and stopped their vehicles to shield the stranded car.

One of the car drivers, Carl Foster, exited his vehicle and found Mr Sobahan sitting in his car in a state of shock.

The prosecutor said Mr Sobahan's behaviour was bizarre "speaking incoherently and he had to be stopped from walking back into the road".

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A lorry driver then stopped his vehicle in a way it was also shielding the crashed car, with his lights blazing and he also pumped the brakes pedal so the red lights were also warning oncoming traffic, he added.

He said for 25 minutes, although vehicles had to slow down, no-one collided until Mr Maddex's Post Office van drove straight into the back of the lorry at an estimated 56 mph.

A witness later told police that Mr Maddex's vehicle appeared to take no evasion action.

The prosecutor added: "Mr Maddex almost certainly was using his mobile phone at the time. He was accessing a banking app on his phone."

Mr Sobahan was uninsured to drive the Citroen and had been told by his doctor not to drive.

He said he had been at home with his pregnant wife when he smoked some cannabis, had no intention of driving "and the next thing he remembers was being held down at the side of the road", he told police.

Mr Sobahan, who did not give evidence, said he had been with a "jinn" – an Arabic word meaning spirit and where the word "genie" comes from – and had not driven on purpose.

The jury took less than an hour before returning not guilty verdicts on all charges.