A motorist crashed his car twice at high speed in "an astounding and incredible course of criminal conduct" which culminated in the theft of a £40,000 Jaguar from a Parks Motor Group forecourt, a court heard.

Naveed Nawaz jumped into the car, that had been running as updates were loaded to its sat nav system, before fleeing the AM100 car retail group’s dealership on Harbour Road, Inverness, in a bid to drive back home to Birmingham on October 8.

But Inverness Sheriff Court heard that he was apprehended by police officers just a short time later, the Inverness Courier reported after a hearing last Wednesday (December 30).

The court heard how the theft came after the 26-year-old, of Washwood Heath Road, Birmingham, crashed his own 11-year-old car into a ditch and collided with a house conservatory in the space of three days.

Fiscal depute Roderick Urquhart told the court that on October 2, Nawaz had been driving at 90mph on a single-track road near Lairg when he lost control of his car and ended up in a ditch.

Three days later excessive speed caused him to lose control and hit the conservatory in the rural hamlet of Haster.

At Wednesday’s hearing over the theft of the Jaguar in Inverness, mitigating solicitor Neil Wilson could give no indication as to why Nawaz was in the area.

The Courier reported that Sheriff Ian Cruickshank said first offender Nawaz had committed "an astounding and incredible course of criminal conduct in a matter of days” and asked: “Was he trying to do the North Coast 500?"

Mr Wilson said Nawaz had been released following the theft of the Jaguar and twice failed to tuen up at Inverness Sheriff Court to answer the undertaking in November.

“A warrant was issued and he was arrested in Glasgow on December 7," he said.

The Courier reported that Nawaz admitted theft of a car, failing to identify the driver to police when he was intercepted at Moy and driving the unregistered Jaguar car without insurance.

He also admitted two charges of careless driving, failing to identify the driver of the vehicle involved in the collisions and trespassing onto a railway line near Inverness on October 9.

Sheriff Cruickshank backdated the custodial sentence to December 8, and banned Nawaz from driving for 16 months.