Show-off who crashed car twice is fined

Aboy racer put seven of his young friends in hospital by causing two horrific high-speed crashes in the space of six months.

Lewis Moffat was waiting to go on trial for the first crash when he caused the second, demolishing a wall and leaving two women screaming in agony at the roadside.

A jury was told Moffat bragged about how he was going to perform a “handbrake turn” seconds before his hot hatch spun off the road and into a garden wall.

The jury was not told Moffat, 23, was already awaiting trial for dangerous driving after “showing off ” and causing another crash just months beforehand.

After being convicted at Perth Sheriff Court this week, Sheriff William Wood told him he was fortunate the jury had cleared him of trying to nobble witnesses.

Moffat – who claimed he swerved to avoid a hare on the road – had been charged with trying to pervert the course of justice by telling the victims to back up his story.

The jury at Perth Sheriff Court was told Moffat claimed he had swerved to avoid a hare and had lost control and hit a wall at the side of the road.

The court was told the speed of the impact “demolished” the whole wall and left Moffat and his friend Ross Taylor having to free the two girls from the wreckage.

The court was told how the women had warned Moffat against the manoeuvre after he told them he was going to pull the handbrake as he approached a 90-degree bend in the road.

Melissa Hunter and Megan Allan both broke down in the witness box as they described how they were left in severe pain as a result of their injuries.

Mr Taylor and the accused were also taken to hospital for checks.

Both women had to give evidence twice because the trial had to be re-started when the first jury was dismissed after two days.

Some jurors had been overheard discussing the case during proceedings.

Moffat, of Blair Crescent, Auchterarder, had been facing a dangerous driving charge but the jury found him guilty of a reduced charge of careless driving.

He was found guilty of driving carelessly by repeatedly applying the handbrake and causing the Ford Fiesta to speed and swerve between Perth and St Andrews on January 20, 2019.

Sheriff Wood declined to ban Moffat as any disqualification would run alongside the one he is already serving in respect of the previous case for which he was convicted.

The Sheriff said: “Rather than impose a disqualification, I am going to impose the maximum points available which will be nine points – so any speeding offence will lead to disqualification.

“Hopefully you will have learned your lesson one way or another.”

He also fined Moffat £1,000.

WRECKLESS: Lewis Moffat caused two high-speed crashes in the space of six months.