A dangerous driver has been convicted after he was caught doing more than 100mph on the wrong side of a 30mph road in Sunderland.
Aaron Lee of Merle Terrace, Sunderland, was caught tearing along Newcastle Road in a black Mercedes at a speed of 108mph on August 23 last year.
The 27-year-old was caught on another road user’s dashcam, which was uploaded to Northumbria Police’s website by the witness.
PC Alan Brown is part of the Force’s Collision Investigation Unit (CIU) which assists in the prosecution of the region's most serious traffic offences – and he admitted Lee’s actions behind the wheel “beggared belief”.
He said: “This is one of the worst cases of driving I have seen during my time in policing.
“Over the years, I’ve dealt with hundreds of dangerous driver cases and this is the fastest I can ever recall somebody travelling in a 30mph limit. It is a busy road near a hospital, with houses on either side and a constant flow of traffic – it beggars belief.
“As you’ll see, the quality of the footage is excellent and I’d like to thank the member of the public who captured this vital evidence and submitted it to us via our website. They absolutely did the right thing and this has now led to Lee’s conviction.
“While the clip is clearly an indictment of Lee’s actions, in order to secure his conviction at court, the CIU were tasked with proving the minimum speed that he must have been travelling.
“This is an extensive piece of work that took a number of days - counting every single frame per second, attending the scene to take reference points, and calculating the absolute minimum speed of the car.
“It is clear that Lee cannot be trusted to use our roads in a lawful and safe manner. His actions that day could easily have resulted in serious injury or a fatality and he must now deal with the consequences of his actions.”
Lee appeared before magistrates in South Tyneside on Tuesday after pleading guilty to dangerous driving. He is due to be sentenced at the same court on October 23.
Anyone who has dashcam footage of somebody driving in a dangerous or reckless manner is encouraged to upload the clip at the ‘Report an Incident’ page of the Northumbria Police website.
