A COMPANY car driver who was caught by police reading a newspaper while travelling at 80mph behind the wheel of his Vauxhall Vectra on a motorway has been fined £850 in Stirling and banned from driving for two years. Charles Slorach, accounts manager with Dundee-based wholesale grocers C.J. Lang and Sons, overtook an unmarked police vehicle on the M9 near Stirling with the Daily Record on his steering wheel.

Sgt Robert Murphy told the court that he and a colleague, who were both in uniform, pulled up alongside Slorach and saw he was reading the open newspaper. 'He was driving in the fast lane of the motorway at 80mph. The potential was there for a disaster.'

Slorach was convicted after the court saw video evidence from a camera mounted on the police car's dashboard during the incident on September 18 last year. Sheriff Alexander Eccles told Slorach his behaviour was 'unbelievable'.