A DANGER driver brought to court after a passenger filmed his 100mph motoring which ended in a crash has been spared prison but branded an “idiot” by the sentencing judge.

Logan Corrie, now 18, was prosecuted following an incident on August 29 last year when he was behind the wheel of a 23-plate Seat Ibiza in the Frizington area.

“Slightly unusually it was captured not in the usual way by police but by a passenger in the defendant’s car,” a prosecutor told Carlisle Crown Court. Another passenger was also inside the vehicle.

“The reason the footage exists, we presume, is that this is an instance of a young man with other young men — the young man being the defendant — driving, showing off because he thinks that depressing an accelerator is an achievement.”

Through 30mph Frizington, Corrie hit 94mph. That speed increased to 107mph on a 60mph stretch of the A5086.

Audio with footage, shot by the passenger and focused on the speedometer, captured someone appearing to say “100” before the screen went black as Corrie lost control.

“It left the road and crashed through a hedge,” said the prosecutor. “The car lands in a field. It is overturned.”

Police analysis, using vehicle data, showed it was travelled at 106mph five seconds before impact, with a doomed braking attempt occurring 3.5 seconds beforehand.

“It is because of that collision that events came to the attention of the police via the video footage taken by the passenger who, no doubt, thought it exciting enough to be videoing with images for dissemination,” added the prosecution.

Corrie, of Newtown, Frizington, admitted dangerous driving. He had since also been punished by magistrates for a drug-driving offence which he committed in January this year.

Drugs had been an issue for Corrie, defence lawyer Marion Weir told his crown court sentencing hearing. Corrie had been diagnosed with ADHD, turned to drug use following bereavement and, a probation officer had concluded, was “a young man with a lot of growing up to do”.

Responding to Recorder Julian Shaw’s observation that Corrie could have killed himself and others, Ms Weir said: “It is more by luck than desire that that didn’t take place.”

Recorder Shaw said it was “tempting” to send Corrie — whom he called an “idiot” for the dangerous driving — to custody. But with prisons “bursting at the seams” and the teen needing professional help, the judge suspended a 12-month sentence for 12 months.

The judge suggested to Corrie he might like to write a letter thanking engineers who had designed the robust vehicle he drove. “Back in the day (cars would have) crumpled like a tin can and you would have been mush.

"You could have killed yourself. More to the point you could have killed those young men, boys, in that car,” he said.

Corrie must complete a drug rehabilitation requirement and work with the probation service. He was banned from driving for 15 months and must pass an extended test before getting behind the wheel. 

“Drugs will either see you in custody or see you dead in the gutter,” the judge told him. “Driving like this will see you either maimed or dead.

“Comply with this order and get your life in order.”