Former Stagecoach bus driver who crushed Inverness pensioner against his car after a row in Carrbridge is banned from driving
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A bus driver who crushed a motorist into his vehicle after a "road rage" incident has been banned from driving for two years.
Former special constable Nigel Dunn was also ordered to resit an extended driving test before getting behind the wheel again.
The 52-year-old who now works in a supermarket after resigning from Stagecoach shortly after the incident will also have to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work.
Dunn appeared for sentence at Inverness Sheriff Court yesterday, following preparation of a background report.
Sheriff Margaret Neilson told him: "No-one can look behind a jury's verdict. It was an unusual case because there weren't any of the aggravating factors associated with dangerous driving – no excessive speed as CCTV showed speeds of 0-3mph and no extended period of dangerous driving.
"It was at the lower end of the scale of dangerous driving but there were disastrous consequences."
The jury trial heard that there had been an angry exchange between Dunn and a retired Inverness shop owner, Les Crichton, now 78, on March 22, 2017 in a car park in Carrbridge.
Dunn, behind the wheel of his bus, complained about where Mr Crichton had parked after the former owner of Ness Freezer Foods in Inverness was walking back to his car.
Dunn then drove off and, when doing so, trapped Mr Crichton between the two vehicles, fracturing his pelvis in two places.
Dunn had denied causing serious injury by dangerous driving in the first jury trial at the new Inverness Justice Centre since the Covid outbreak disrupted court proceedings last March.
He was found guilty by a majority of the jurors who were located in Eden Court Theatre a mile away and linked by video to Sheriff Neilson's court.
The jury heard that Mr Crichton had stopped for a call of nature and when he returned found Dunn angry, claiming that he could not get past his car.
Mr Crichton told the jury: "We had words. I suggested that if he couldn't drive the bus through the space, he shouldn't be driving, which was probably the wrong thing to do."
He fell ill a couple of days after the incident and it was suspected the arm of his vehicle's wing mirror broken by the bus had damaged his upper intestine.
He spent five weeks in hospital, was in a wheelchair for the same amount of time and had weeks of physiotherapy.
As a result of the fracture his left leg is now shorter than his right with his lop-sided gait corrected by a shoe support.
He still walks with a stick.
Defence solicitor Nigel Beaumont told the court Dunn had been "badly affected" by the incident.
"He has been driving since he was 17 with no convictions," he said.
"He was a well-liked bus driver and has had many messages of support, but he drifted into a depression because of this.
"It has taken a toll on his health and I would submit it is at the lower end of the scale of dangerous driving, albeit the dreadful consequences for Mr Crichton."
