Road safety campaigners have condemned a father clocked doing 117mph with his young children aged three and seven strapped in the back of a high-performance BMW.
Account executive Aaron Luke Nelson was banned from the road for 16 months for what a sheriff described as “crassrecklessness” in the incident on the A90 dual carriageway between Dundee and Forfar in February.
Campaigners branded his actions “incomprehensible.”
Nelson was found guilty of dangerous driving after a trial at Forfar SheriffCourt in which he claimed he hadbeen trying to escape a tailgating Audi in his privately-registered 155mphBMW 535.
In the witness box the 32-year-old from Northmuir admitted he wasspeeding at about 100 miles per hour, but “categorically” denied hitting the speed which police recorded on a laser gun as they sat on traffic duty alongside the busy trunk road.
Toad safety organisation Brake said Nelson’s actions were“criminally irresponsible”.
Spokesman James McLoughlin said: “Driving at such speeds is criminally irresponsible and doingso with young childrenin the vehicle is almost incomprehensible.
“Crashes at such excessive speeds nearly always result in death.”
The trial, before Sheriff Gregor Murray, heard the accused had been on his way back to Angus after travelling to Edinburgh to meet up his wife in her small Fiat 500 because she was nervous of driving through the city.
Nelson said he had driven in convoy with her to a point north of Dundee, where he then set the cruise control on his car to 70.
He told his solicitor, Euan Robertson, that he knew he was in excess of the 70mph limit but put his speed at 100mph, and not anywhere near 117mph.
Finding Nelson guilty of dangerous driving, Sheriff Murray said the fact the two young children were in the car was a “significant aggravation” in the offence.
He added: “It is only your own stupidity and crass recklessness with your children in the car that’s put you in this position.”
The sheriff imposed a one-year community payback order on Nelson, including 100 hours of unpaid work.