We've all taken wrong turns while driving. Usually the result is just an embarrassing retreat or a defensive claim of 'I know where I'm going!' to any doubting passengers. But sometimes you're not so lucky.

One lost driver found himself in a whole lot of trouble on Tuesday after accidentally joining a White House motorcade containing Obama's daughters.

The Washington Post reports that Mathew Goldstein was driving his Honda Civic in the vicinity of the White House when he accidentally followed the secret service motorcade through a security perimeter. After passing security gates the car was driving close enough to the car ahead that it passed through the automatic bollards before they could be raised

Goldstein maintains that he had no intention of entering White House grounds and that he was unfamiliar with the roads and "checked out mentally".

Such occurrences are not unheard of outside of Washington DC, where motorists accidentally enter the presidential motorcade, but Secret Service agents are disturbed that this happened, quite literally, in their own back garden. Spokesman Ed Donovan said they would “have to review and find out how that did happen”.

Goldstein will face a court hearing on May 21 with a misdemeanour charge of unlawful entry, which carries a maximum sentence of 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.