A man who shoved a police officer on to a busy dual carriageway as cars sped past at 70mph has dodged jail.
Builder James McVey was spotted running on the A90 Dundee to Aberdeen road near Tealing on his way home following a shift on September 1, 2017.
Fearing for his safety, passing police officers doubled back and found him in a bus layby – where they tried to calm him down.
However McVey instead swore at a bus driver who had pulled over before starting to walk towards the main road.
PCs David Gray and Kevin Steele followed him and grabbed him as he got to the side of the road.
McVey – who last year dodged jail for battering a woman in a taxi, leaving her with permanent scars – then shoved PC Steele on to the carriageway.
The police officer only avoided falling directly into the path of passing cars by grabbing McVey and spinning him into the front of the bus.
A trial at Dundee Sheriff Court was shown CCTV footage taken from the bus showing the incident unfolding inches from speeding traffic.
One of the policemen told the trial: “I was scared for my life. I felt the wind rushing past me.”
McVey claimed he “just wanted to get home” when the incident unfolded and that the officers had been “aggressive” towards him.
He also claimed to have made a video call to his girlfriend as the incident went on to show officers had “kicked lumps” out of him.
However the footage shown to the court showed no such call being made.
Summing up the Crown case, fiscal depute Saima Rasheed told a jury: “The accused walked away from the police towards the face of oncoming traffic.
“The officer put himself in the way of this gentleman.
“The accused struggled with Constable Steele and he pushed him, trying to push him into lane one of the carriageway.
“The only reason he didn’t end up on the road is that Constable Steele managed to spin them around and up against the bus.”
McVey, 47, of Tayport, denied a total of six charges on indictment.
A jury took an hour to unanimously convict him of breach of the peace, assault to injury and danger of life, police assault and resisting arrest committed on September 1 last year on the A90 near Tealing, Angus.
They found a second police assault charge not proven and a third not guilty.
Sheriff Linda Smith placed McVey on a community payback order under supervision for 18 months, a restriction of liberty order for four months between the hours of 9pm and 7am and ordered him to pay £300 compensation to PC Steele.
She added: “You appear to appreciate what a frightening experience this was for the police officer and for members of the public and that’s what the jury decided. You put his life in danger.”
