Three men tried to lure a string of young girls into their car before leading police on a 15-mile, 90mph car chase, a trial has heard.
Miguel Cover, Christopher Stevens and Michael Sandford, all from London, are accused of driving around Dundee in a Ford Galaxy people carrier trying to entice a series of girls, one aged just 15, into the vehicle.
The trio are also accused of asking to join in sex acts with one girl.
Dundee Sheriff Court heard that after these alleged incidents the details of their car were circulated by police, who found them on the city’s Riverside Drive.
That triggered a high-speed chase down the A90 Dundee to Perth road, which culminated in the car attempting a 90-degree bend at 90mph, causing it to skid and smash into a barrier.
The driver is then alleged to have run off towards Perth to evade detection.
Traffic officer PC Michael Fullerton, 50, said he and colleagues had been asked to trace the car in the Hilltown.
Other officers then traced it onRiverside Drive before the car made off towards the dual carriageway to Perth.
They chased the car, finally catching up with it at St Madoes, near Perth, around 15 miles away.
Mr Fullerton said: “We wanted to do a tactical containment of the vehicle. There were three police cars and we wanted to get one ahead, one beside and one behind to stop it.
“The car was travelling around 90mph and at Kinfauns it tried to take the junction, a slip road that is almost a 90-degree angle. They were doing 90mph and lost control, skidded across some grass and collided with a barrier.
“The driver got out and made offwestwards on foot. The front-seatpassenger also got out and was detained.There was a third man who stayed in the car and was also detained.”
Cover, 32, Stevens, 23, and Sandford, 25, all of London, each deny five charges of behaving in a threatening and abusive manner likely to cause fear or alarm.
Cover further denies two charges of dangerous driving as well as failing to stop when ordered to do so, leaving the scene of an accident and failing to report an accident.
The incidents are said to have taken place on January 9 and 10.
The trial, before Sheriff George Way and a jury of nine men and six women, continues.