A Fife man who led police on a high-speed pursuit from Kirkcaldy to Aberdour has been banned from driving for a year and told to carry out unpaid work.
During his heart-in-mouth journey, David Ingram came close to striking another car, a cyclist and pedestrians as he sped towards Shell and Exxon’s liquified petroleum gas export base at Braefoot Bay.
Ingram previously admitted driving dangerously through country roads in Fife last summer while being followed by police with flashing blue lights.
The 38-year-old appeared at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court on Thursday for sentencing in front of Sheriff Pino Di Emidio.
The sheriff told him: “This was a bad piece of driving.”
Ingram was disqualified from driving for 12 months and ordered to carry out 120 hours of unpaid work.
The sheriff warned Ingram that any flouting of the ban would mean “very serious consequences” for him.
Defence lawyer Martin McGuire said his client was at a “low ebb” in his life at the time of the offending.
Police chase
The court was told that the June 1 chase began at Beveridge Park in Kirkcaldy and continued all the way to Braefoot Bay Marine Terminal on the edge of Aberdour.
At one point, Ingram went through a red light and forced another vehicle to swerve to avoid a collision.
Ingram, of Seafield View in Kirkcaldy, also drove close to a cyclist and near to pedestrians.
While behind the wheel of a silver Volkswagen, he drove through metal road barriers and traffic cones, which were blocking off roadworks.
He proceeded on to a section of road that was closed to traffic and then drove at speed towards a stationary police vehicle, narrowly avoiding it.
The chase came to an end when he eventually mounted a pavement and a grass verge.
The court heard that his car was damaged, as were road barriers.
Ingram admitted driving dangerously along Kirkcaldy’s Balwearie Road, Abbotshall Road, Pratt Street, Esplanade and Bridge Street, the B9157, the unclassified Kissing Trees Road, the A909 and Cowdenbeath Road near Burntisland and Aberdour’s Mill Farm Road before reaching Braefoot Bay Marine Terminal and the A921.
He pled guilty to driving at excessive speed for the roadways there and driving around corners at excessive speed.
