“You are not Lewis Hamilton or Max Verstappen”– Judge to 140 mph BMW driver

“You are not Lewis Hamilton or Max Verstappen”– A judge bashes a traffic violator who allegedly speeds up his BMW at 140 mph.

Connor Bunten was caught driving his BMW above 140 mph and risked multiple lives on the A449 between Usk and Newport. The 21-year-old driver was recorded by a van driver Andrew Mitchell’s dashcam.

Mitchell was alarmed by the defendant’s behaviour that he chose to report him for his overspeeding offence. In response, the judge at the Cardiff Crown bashed Bunten and told him he is neither Max Verstappen nor Lewis Hamilton.

“You were tearing down the road at 140mph. What you did posed a significant risk of danger. Everybody caught up in a collision would have been killed,” he said.

He added: “You could have killed multiple people and yourself and left their families bereaved and devastated as well as your own. You are not Lewis Hamilton or Max Verstappen – you wouldn’t have had the ability to get yourself out of trouble if something had gone wrong.

“What you did was stupid, wicked and criminal and it could have had appalling consequences. Fortunately, it didn’t. You were driving at a ridiculous speed. If there had been a crash, nobody would have survived.”

Did Justice serve?

The report informs that Bunten pleaded guilty for dangerous driving, although his lawyer mentioned the stress that caused him to overspeeding. Before this offence, he has a clean driving record.

Nevertheless, Bunten was sentenced to a 12-month community order and told he must carry out 150 hours of unpaid work. Moreover, he is also banned from driving for 12 months and has to sit an extended retest to regain his licence.

The defendant was also ordered to pay £420 costs and a victim surcharge. While the judge has given a Formula 1 reference, it is necessary to the point that the whole fraternity advocates road safety.

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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