A hit-and-run driver who crashed into a motorcyclist in Glenrothes has been jailed for nine months.
Andrew Watson, 36, claimed he had not realised he had collided with Mark Hoskisson near the A92 Bankhead roundabout.
When he handed himself in at a police station two days later, he said he believed the noise of the smash to be a troublesome propshaft on his high-powered Subaru Impreza, as he sped towards Kirkcaldy.
However, witnesses had reported seeing Watson, of Lady Nairne Road, Dunfermline, careering across the roundabout having narrowly avoided a crash with a bin lorry.
A high-profile social media campaign was then launched in an effort to detect the distinctive vehicle, prompting Watson to hand himself in.
Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court heard Mr Hoskisson was left with a punctured lung, fractured pelvis, fractured shoulder blade and fractured ribs.
Witnesses claimed that Watson’s Subaru had been travelling in the region of 50-60mph at the roundabout and had pulled out in front of the bin lorry, prompting it to take evasive action.
It was after this that he collided with Mr Hoskisson’s motorcycle on the Glenrothes to Kirkcaldy stretch of the road, throwing the rider towards the central reservation.
Christine Hagan, defending, said: “Mr Watson was driving home at the time of the offence. He thought the noise was something to do with his car.”
Last month, Watson pleaded guilty on indictment to charges of dangerous driving and failing to stop at the scene of the crash on April 5 last year.
The court heard that he had been convicted twice for speeding in the year before the smash.
Sentencing him to nine months behind bars, Sheriff Jamie Gilchrist said that prison was the only sentence fit for Mr Watson’s actions.
“You had no proper control of your vehicle,” the sheriff said. “You accelerated with no proper regard for the presence of Mark Hoskisson.
“After colliding with him you made no attempt to find out what had happened and took a deliberate decision to drive on without stopping.
“That comes close to wilful blindness.
“The combination of the deliberate bad driving and deciding not to stop leads me to conclude that only a prison sentence is appropriate.”
Sheriff Gilchrist also disqualified Watson from driving for 27 months.