A DANGEROUS driver who was speeding at 140mph on a dual carriageway was told he is no Formula 1 ace like Lewis Hamilton or Max Verstappen.

Connor Bunten, 21, was slammed by a judge who told him he could easily have killed “multiple people” on the A449 between Usk and Newport.

The defendant said to the police he was speeding at twice the 70mph speed limit because he didn’t want to be late for work.

Bunten’s “ridiculous” driving at around 9am on Friday, June 19, 2020, was captured on van driver Andrew Mitchell’s dashcam.

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David Pinnell, prosecuting, said he was so alarmed by the defendant’s behaviour that he reported him.

Bunten in his BMW 2 Series had overtaken Mr Mitchell on the outside lane near to where the A472 slip road joins the A449.

Mr Pinnell told Cardiff Crown Court how an investigating police officer had described the defendant’s driving as “a recipe for disaster”.

He and his colleagues worked out Bunten’s speed from the footage which the defence accepted was at least 140mph.

It was conceded, though the prosecutor added, the traffic flow on the stretch of road that day was light.

The judge, Recorder Simon Mills, told Bunten: “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 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.”

Bunten, of Drybridge Terrace, Monmouth, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving on the day of his trial.

Martha Smith-Higgins representing defendant said her client had no previous convictions and had a clean driving record prior to this offence.

The court was told Bunten was at risk of redundancy at the time with his then employer Volkswagen in Newport.

His barrister added how the defendant was under further severe stress at the time because his grandfather was ill with cancer and has since passed away.

Bunten was sentenced to a 12-month community order and told he must carry out 150 hours of unpaid work.

He was 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.