Dangerous driver van man watched movie on his ipad while on A90

COURT: Motorist disqualified pending sentence for driving while distracted

A van man was caught watching a movie on his ipad while driving in bad weather on one of Tayside’s busiest routes.

William Matthews will be sentenced at Forfar Sheriff Court early in the new year after the Surrey 55-yearold admitted driving dangerously on the A90 Dundee to Aberdeen dual carriageway in February this year.

The court heard he has already lost his job as a delivery driver and has now been removed from the roads after a sheriff imposed an interim disqualification ahead of sentencing.

Matthews, of West Molesey, was not present at Forfar when his case called before Sheriff Gregor Murray but he has admitted driving a van dangerously on the A90 on February 6.

The charge states there was poor visibility on the busy dual carriageway and he was driving while distracted by a tablet device playing a video. It was positioned on the instrument panel and obscuring the speedometer and other dashboard information.

The offence happened near Clatterha, between Forfar and Brechin, on a stretch of the trunk road close to Finavon.

Defence solicitor Brian Bell confirmed Matthews had been spotted in a line of traffic watching the movie.

He said: “He has lost his job as a result and as a result has very little income to pay a fine.”

Sheriff Murray deferred sentence until January 9 for a criminal justice background report to be prepared.

A driver convicted of a contravention of section 2 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 faces a minimum 12-month disqualification and an order to sit

“He has lost his job as a result and... has very little income to pay a fine. BRIAN BELL, DEFENDING

an extended test. The court may also impose a fine of up to £10,000 and/or a community payback order.

The offence follows another court case relating to the same stretch of road, in which a businessman hit another vehicle with a folded-up cigarette packet in a drive-by catapult shooting.

Stuart Mackie, 64, from Falkirk, had been involved in a morning road rage incident with his victim on the route north.

As they passed the Mcdonald’s junction on the Forfar bypass, Mackie fired the vermin control catapult at the car on the inside lane, hitting the driver’s side in an incident captured by the other motorist’s dash cam.

Mackie held on to his licence but was ordered to carry out 200 hours’ unpaid work for the December 2018 offence.