A groom who did celebratory ‘diffing’ on a public road on the day of his wedding, whilst his veil-wearing bride was a passenger in the vehicle, has been convicted of dangerous driving.
Two other men also took part in the 'donut' session on a country road in Co Antrim.
A video of the incident, which came from a mobile phone which was seized during a police enquiry into another case, was shown to Monday’s sitting of Coleraine Magistrates Court.
The images showed a number of cars doing ‘diffing’ as a large crowd of onlookers watched. The court echoed to the sounds of revving engines from the video.
Jonathan Othniel Davidson (34) of Lisnagat Road, Mosside; Martin Jamison (22) of Turnarobert Park, Armoy and John Edward Mackey Lamont (35) of Turraloskin Park, Moyarget, near Ballycastle - all Co Antrim - had contested charges of dangerous driving arising out of the incident at Ballinlea Road on February 21st, 2015.
In relation to the ‘donuts’, Davidson and Lamont had entered guilty pleas to a lesser charge of driving without due care and attention but were convicted of dangerous driving and were each fined £200.
Jamison had contended that although his car was spotted on the footage he was not the driver but District Judge Liam McNally convicted him of the offence noting it was his car and he was the only one insured to drive it and he did not give an explanation to police or the court. He was fined £300.
Jamison's defence solicitor Andrew Kinney made an unsuccessful application for the footage to be in inadmissable in evidence.
The three men were all banned from driving for a year and will all have to re-sit their tests.