A young man who recklessly grabbed the wheel of a moving bus was yesterday told the consequences of his actions could have been “too terrible to imagine”.
William Duff was sentenced to four months’ detention after a sheriff said he had no option but to imprison the 21-year-old.
He was aged 19 and heavily under the influence of alcohol when he lunged for the controls of the bus, which was packed to capacity with youngsters returning from a night out at Dundee’s Fat Sams nightclub.
Shouting “I’m going to drive” at a stunned Lee Buckley, boss of coach hire firm BKL Excursions, he caused the bus to veer around the A90 Dundee to Perth road.
Mr Buckley was forced to kick and push Duff away as he wrestled control of the bus back from his passenger.
The driver told Perth Sheriff Court: “I managed to get him off pretty quickly by kind of pushing him away with my foot, but the bus veered to the left and had to apply the brakes.”
He accepted, however, that it had been “more reckless stupidity than an attempt to remove me from my seat”.
Duff, of Lewis Place in Perth, had denied the offence but was found guilty of culpable and reckless behaviour on the A90 Dundee to Perth road, near Glendoick, on December 29 2011.