SNP MP Angus MacNeil found guilty of careless driving

Angus MacNeil is the MP for the Western Isles

A Scottish MP has been found guilty of careless driving following a collision in October 2020.

Angus MacNeil, SNP MP for the Western Isles constituency Na h-Eileanan an Iar, was involved in a two-vehicle collision in Castlebay on Barra.

A motorcyclist, who was 17 at the time, was left with a broken leg.

MacNeil, 51, had denied a charge of dangerous driving. At Lochmaddy Sheriff Court he was found guilty of an alternative charge of careless driving.

He was disqualified from driving for three months and fined £1,500 by Sherriff Gordon Lamont at the court in North Uist.

The court had previously heard that the teenager had been riding a dirt bike along the A888, near Castlebay Community School.

The crash took place after the vehicle being driven by MacNeil pulled out from a layby.

The rider suffered serious injuries to his leg and has been left with permanent scarring.

The rider was treated at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow

He was initially taken to St Brendan's Hospital before being airlifted to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, where he had surgery on his fractured leg.

Giving evidence on Wednesday, MacNeil said he had not seen the rider until the point they collided.

He said he had been doing a three-point-turn, and 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 said MacNeil was "obviously shaken" after the crash and that the MP had told him: "It was my fault, I didn't see the boy."

However, in court MacNeil said he did not remember giving the statement to police and said the collision had been the motorcyclist's fault.

Procurator fiscal Miriam Clark described MacNeil's manoeuvre as "dangerous" and said he had failed to see a noisy bike coming down the hill.

MacNeil's advocate, John Brannigan, had urged the sheriff to acquit his client of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.