Macneil guilty of careless driving

AN SNP MP has been found guilty of careless driving after a 17-year-old was knocked off his bike.

Angus Macneil, MP for the Western Isles, has been banned from driving for three months and ordered to pay a £1,500 fine.

Mr Macneil had been on trial charged with dangerous driving, but was instead convicted of the alternative charge yesterday.

It comes at the end of a trial at Lochmaddy Sheriff Court on the island of North Uist in the Outer Hebrides.

The court had previously heard that in October 2020 a 17-yearold had been riding a dirt bike along the A888, near the Castlebay Community School on Macneil’s home island of Barra, when the politician pulled out and crashed into him.

The rider suffered serious injuries to his leg and has previously told a court he now finds it hard to work on vehicles because of the pain and, to try to cope, he is “constantly taking paracetamol”.

Macneil, giving his own evidence, claimed to have not seen the rider until the point the two collided.

The court heard the MP was doing a three-point-turn in the middle of the road on the evening the crash happened.

He told the court: “The first thing I did is look in my mirrors and check there is nothing around me.

“I looked behind me, I looked around me and there was nothing in the area.”

Police officer Phil Farndell, who attended the scene, gave evidence and said Macneil was “obviously shaken” by the crash.

When the prosecution asked what Macneil said to him, Mr Farndell replied: “He said, ‘It was my fault, I didn’t see the boy’.”

But in evidence the MP said “it was like I was in a dream” in the aftermath of the collision and claimed not to remember giving this statement to police.