A man who was seriously injured in a road accident by an untraced driver today claimed that the Government was to blame for the level of damages he received.

In 1999, Kenneth Moore was awarded £376,000 in respect of the April 1995 accident by the Motor Insurers Bureau, which compensates the victims of negligent uninsured and untraced motorists.

Mr Moore, an actor, of East Close, Middleton-on-Sea, west Sussex, was not satisfied with the amount, which was increased by an arbitrator on appeal to £585,000 in February 2000.

Still not satisfied, Mr Moore, who was in a coma for a time after the accident, brought High Court proceedings, claiming that the Government was in breach of its obligation under certain EC directives.

He says that he would have got even more if the second of the European Directives on Motor Insurance of December 1983 had been properly transposed into domestic law.

Mr Moore claimed that the alleged breach had cost him another £605,000 in damages plus £53,000 interest and £15,000 in costs - with another £294,000 in interest on those three heads of claim.

The purpose of the second directive was to remove disparities between the laws of different member states regarding compulsory insurance cover for damage to persons or property arising out of traffic accidents.

Mr Moore's counsel, Robert Seabrook QC, claimed before Mr Justice Eady in London that the Government was obliged to make good loss or damage caused to individuals by breaches of community law for which it could be held responsible.

He contested the Government's case that the UK did not need to introduce any new legislation in order to transpose the second directive into national law because an existing 1972 agreement relating to untraced drivers was already in place.

His case was that the 1972 agreement, under which his claim for compensation was determined, was a defective instrument.

The Government's counsel, Jonathan Crow QC, argued that the case should be thrown out at a preliminary stage because the claim had been brought outside the legal time limit and, in any case, Mr Moore had no real prospect of success.

"Our application for summary judgment on the damages claim proceeds on the basis that he cannot succeed in that claim."

The hearing, which is estimated to last two days, was adjourned until tomorrow.