A 22-YEAR-OLD driver who was filmed on a dashcam driving at 140mph has been banned from the road for a year at Cardiff Crown Court.

Connor Bunten of Dry Bridge Terrace, Monmouth, was told he was “no Lewis Hamilton” after being caught on camera during the morning rushour speeding in his high-powered BMW M2 at twice the 70mph speed limit.

The dashcam footage of the 21-year-old’s shocking driving at 9am on the busy A449 dual carriageway near Usk was submitted to GoSafe’s Operation Snap by a motorist who witnessed it.

Bunten told police he was flooring it at such a ridiculous speed in June 2020 because he was late for work.

But the judge, Recorder Simon Mills, told him: “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.”

He added: “Everybody caught up in a collision would have been killed…

“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.”

After reviewing the footage, Steve Callaghan, a forensic engineer at Road Safety Support, was able to calculate the speed of the BMW at 140.8mph as it passed the other vehicle.

Bunten originally denied dangerous driving, but changed his plea to guilty on the day of his trial.

Martha Smith-Higgins, for the defendant, said he was at risk of redundancy at the time with his then employer Volkswagen in Newport, while his grandfather was also ill with cancer and has since passed away.

Bunten was given a 12-month community order, told to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work and ordered to pay £515 in costs and a victim surcharge.

As well as a 12-month driving ban, he must also sit an extended retest to regain his licence.

After the hearing, Steve Callaghan said: “Video cameras contain very accurate timing information so drivers who behave like this in the view of those drivers with dashcams should not be surprised when they are prosecuted and convicted driving dangerously and well in excess of the speed limit.

“Mr Bunten was convicted on the evidence of such a driver who took the time to submit the evidence.”

A Go Safe spokesperson said: “The extreme speed Mr Bunten was travelling at was aggravated by the fact the BMW passed the witness adjacent to a hidden on-slip, meaning that if the witness had to move to the offside lane due to traffic joining the main carriageway from the layby, then it would have been reasonable to suggest he would not be expecting anything to be approaching from behind at that speed.”

Sergeant Simon Austin, Gwent Police GoSafe Coordinator, said: “I think this goes to show how valuable Operation SNAP is in tackling poor driving and I am very grateful that the member of the public submitted the footage to us.

“The speed that Connor Bunten was driving at is incredibly shocking and it is by sheer luck that no one was seriously hurt or killed.

“Please rest assured that driving in this manner will always be dealt with and I would also like to extend my thanks to the Operation SNAP team for their efforts in investigating this matter.”