Scottish mechanic who drove customer’s car and crashed into pensioner is jailed

A mechanic driving a customer’s car who caused a head-on collision after overtaking at speeds of up to 80 miles an hour on a small country road in Perthshire, seriously injuring an “innocent” pensioner and his son who were coming the other way, has been jailed for two years.

The mechanic drove the customer's car on a small country road. Picture: Googlemaps

Kyle Stewart, 21, from Dundee, was labelled “every decent driver’s nightmare” by a sheriff, who said he had caused “carnage”.

Sheriff Thomas Hughes said the other driver, Thomas Cosgrove, 43, and his father Allan, 70, were lucky not have been killed.

The incident occurred on the narrow B954 Newtyle to Meigle Road in August 2017. The Cosgroves spent days in hospital after the incident and were left traumatised. Dundee Sheriff Court was told Stewart, who at the time was working for a local garage, was driving a customer’s blue Ford Sierra when he collided with the pair on the opposite side of the road.

An off-duty detective witnessed him driving at excessive speeds just before the collision and said, as he disappeared from view, “you’re going to kill yourself”. Seconds later the accident happened.

The car Stewart was driving had defective tyres and complications with the anti-lock braking system.

A jury found him guilty last month of driving dangerously by overtaking several cars at speed, travelling on the opposing carriageway in the face of oncoming traffic and colliding with the Cosgroves’ Volkswagen Passat. Stewart was also banned from driving for five years.