Driver caught doing 150mph with toddlers not wearing seatbelts in car jailed

Police said it was 'sheer luck' no one was killed on the A1 near Peterborough

Accident resulted in the closure of five junctions of the motorway in both directions (Getty Images)

A driver caught doing 150mph while toddlers were in the car without seatbelts has been jailed.

Keith Millard, 27, of Berwick-upon-Tweed, was jailed for 20 weeks at Peterborough Crown Court on 17 June after admitting dangerous driving and driving with no insurance.

He has also been banned from driving for three years and ordered to pay £600 in costs and a £100 victim surcharge, Cambridgeshire Police said.

Millard was spotted driving a black Mercedes 320 down the A1 at Norman Cross, near Peterborough, by officers carrying out a speed check at about 9.30pm on 14 September.

Police followed the car to the A14 where it slowed to about 90mph due to heavy traffic, allowing them to catch up and pull the driver over.

When officers got to the vehicle, they found a woman sat in the passenger seat and four young children crammed in the back.

Six-month old twins were in car seats facing forwards without seatbelts, a one-year-old girl was asleep on the seat between them and a two-year-old boy was found in the footwell, according to Cambridgeshire Police.

Millard told officers he was trying to get to Dover in time to board the last ferry to Germany after missing a crossing in Hull.

Investigations revealed that the Mercedes was Millard's father's, but he was not insured to drive it and he was summonsed to court charged with dangerous driving and driving with no insurance.

After he failed to attend the initial hearing, he was arrested at Edinburgh Airport when he flew back into Scotland. Officers from Cambridgeshire had to travel up to Scotland to bring him back.

Sergeant Gordon Murray said: “It is shocking to think of the danger that Millard put these young children in.

"Not only would any collision, or loss of control, at such speeds have potentially tragic consequences for both the driver and other road users, but the effect on unrestrained toddlers would almost certainly have been fatal.

"It is only through sheer luck that no one was injured or killed by his driving and this case should send a strong message that such reckless behaviour will not be tolerated by police or the courts."