AN elderly marchionesse has denied causing a four-vehicle pile-up by driving dangerously in her £30,000 4x4.

Lady Susan Zetland, whose aristocratic family own 18th Century Aske Hall in North Yorkshire, is accused of causing the crash on July 4 last year.

It is alleged she pulled out of a side road onto the A66 trans-Pennine trunk road near the village of Melsonby, North Yorkshire, into the path of a lorry.

Teesside Crown Court heard her car then spun into the opposite carriageway.

It is alleged that in the course of the incident she collided with another car and a second lorry.

Lady Zetland, who was charged under the name Susan Zetland, pleaded not guilty to the charge of dangerous driving in her Subaru Outback and she now faces trial later this year.

Her barrister Rod Hunt told the court that dashcam footage of the accident taken from another vehicle would be shown to the court.

Mr Hunt said: "It seems the defendant's car was clipped by a wagon and it was flung into the next carriageway.

"It was not the case of the defendant driving across both carriageways."

Lady Zetland was supported in court by her husband, the fourth Marquess of Zetland, who has helped run British horseracing for many years and founded the British Horseracing Board.

The ten-minute hearing was adjourned to give the prosecution time to study dashcam footage before a new hearing date can be fixed.

It is anticipated the case will go to trial in May.

The Zetlands smiled and remarked on the weather to cameramen as they left court.

Their family seat, Aske Hall, is a Georgian country house in 12,000 acres of land, just north of Richmond, North Yorks.

The home has gardens attributed to the great landscape architect Capability Brown and has a celebrated collection of 18th century portraits, porcelain and furniture.

In 2011 their second century Roman imperial sculpture of Leda and the Swan - which had once been a garden ornament - sold for £12.2m at auction.

Lord Zetland is the elder brother of Lord David Dundas, 71, who wrote the 1976 hit Jeans On and the score to cult classic Withnail and I.