Jailed, the 156mph speeder chased by police for 30 miles
A DRIVER who led police on a cross-Border chase at more than 156mph in his £50,000 car was jailed yesterday.
Paul Robertson was also banned from the roads and had his car forfeited for his dangerous driving on December 4 last year.
The 28-year-old tried to shake off officers after driving the wrong way along a motorway slip road in the dead of night.
The chase began when he left Gretna Services, with police racing after him in an attempt to stop him.
But he led them on a 30-mile chase in his BMW M3, hitting speeds more than double the 70mph limit, before police lost him near Penrith, Cumbria.
He was later traced at his home in Bridge of Don, Aberdeen, arrested and charged. He returned to the dock at Dumfries Sheriff Court to be sentenced for driving at one of the fastest speeds ever recorded by police in Scotland.
Last month he pleaded guilty to dangerous driving from the service road at Gretna Services to the M6 southbound carriageway at Junction 41 – 30 miles away.
The charge he admitted stated he ‘did attempt to drive out of a petrol station against the flow of traffic, accelerate harshly away from a police vehicle, fail to stop when requested to do so by a pursuing police vehicle and drive at speeds in excess of 156mph, all during the hours of darkness’.
After hearing Robertson had a previous conviction for driving while unfit through drink or drugs, sentence was deferred for background reports and he was banned from the road temporarily.
When he returned to the dock yesterday, he was jailed for nine months and banned from driving for 18 months.
In 2009, biker Neil Purves was jailed for nine months after driving at 166mph – the fastest speed recorded on a Scottish road – on the A702 near West Linton, Peeblesshire.