A teacher has been fined after cycling the wrong way down a slip road in Norwich into an oncoming car.

Neil Barwick, 48, of Portersfield Road, denied the charge of cycling without due care and attention at Norwich Magistrates' Court yesterday, but was found guilty of the offence by district judge Paul Watson.

Mr Barwick was fined £270 and was also ordered to pay £200 in court costs and a £27 victim surcharge.

The court heard he had been cycling against the flow of traffic down a slip road leading from Bluebell Road onto the A11/Newmarket Road while he was on his way to work at Cringleford Primary School at around 7.40am on January 7 this year.

It was a dark, rainy morning and Mr Barwick hit a green Nissan Almera being driven by Josine van den Berg and went over the top of it, suffering injuries to his back and neck.

Ms van den Berg, who was driving with her headlights on, then stopped and called an ambulance for Mr Barwick, and police also arrived at the scene.

Her was written off in the collision because of damage to its bumper, bonnet, windscreen and a light.

Giving evidence, Ms van den Berg said: 'He hit me straight on'.

But Mr Barwick claimed he was crossing the slip road from one side to the other, and the car ran into his side.

He said he was '100pc sure' that he was not cycling down the slip road the wrong way on that day.

But Mr Watson said the evidence, including the damage to the bike, which had folded up, pointed to a head-on rather than a side-on collision.

He said: 'This is certainly consistent with the damage to your bike and the position that you were found in behind the car.

'It seems to me inconceivable that the collision took place as you suggested.

'No reasonable cyclist would have cycled that way, therefore I find you guilty.'

Mr Barwick's lawyer, Simon Nicholls, said they planned to appeal the verdict at crown court.