Family subjected to terror driving

A COUPLE “begged” police for help as they made a terrifying 40-minute journey while being harassed.

A trial heard Liam Laing and another driver targeted their victims, returning to Fife after watching ice hockey in Dundee, after coming up behind them on the Tay Road Bridge.

Michael Crosbie told Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court he believed they were annoyed by him sticking to the speed limit. He said Laing’s silver car and a red car worked to box him in and drive slowly in front of him on the A92 as far as Melville Lodges roundabout, around 17 miles from the bridge.

He said: “I felt I was being threatened because of the way they had come in front and side of me.

“They were pinning me. This continued on and off all the way home. They were chopping and changing going in front of me and slamming the brakes on. I found myself having to swerve all over the road to avoid them, I even moved into the wrong lane.”

Mr Crosbie added: “(Police) were called several times on the journey. We were begging them for help.”

One car would go, then return.

When they got to Melville Lodges roundabout both cars drove round it twice to come up behind him. At the Pitcoudie roundabout at Glenrothes, another eight miles down the A92, Mr Crosbie felt safe enough to stop as both cars appeared to have disappeared.

But Laing’s car soon arrived. “When I saw the car I jumped out because I thought they were threatening my wife.

“As I ran round, the silver car reversed and then drove straight at me – I jumped (on to the bonnet) to avoid going under.

“The car accelerated and I fell off and landed in the road.”

Laing, 21, claimed he and a friend were driving to Cupar and it was his friend who had harassed Mr Crombie.

He said he drove twice around the Melville Lodges to see which way his friend would go, as he had been in front of the Crosbies until that point.

He said Mr Crosbie had attacked his vehicle and he drove with him on his bonnet as he “feared for his life”.

But Sheriff Ian Anderson convicted him of dangerous driving on November 4 2018.

Laing, of Mary Law Gardens, Cupar Muir, will now lose his job.

He was banned for 14 months, then must resit the extended driving test, and do 80 hours of unpaid work.

Liam Laing