A young driver has been banned after he was filmed on dashcam forcing another driver into the central reservation of the A30 in East Devon.

Jim Dare was trying to overtake a 4x4 on the dual carriageway near Honiton when he was seen tailgating it in his car and flashing his lights to try to make it pull over.

A motorist in a vehicle which was behind both cars filmed him trying to undertake the 4x4 and sideswiping when its driver tried to pull in.

Tarmac layer Dare, aged 23, of Wilmington, admitted dangerous driving and was jailed for 15 weeks, suspended for 18 months, and ordered to do 150 hours unpaid work and 15 days of rehabilitation activities.

He was also disqualified from driving and ordered to take an extended re-test by Judge Anna Richardson at Exeter Crown Court.

She told him: “You were tailgating the driver in front of you, who if he had been a completely innocent driver, would have risked causing an accident which may have caused very serious injury and which was not their fault.

“In fact, the driver in front understandably checked your brakes and when you backed off and tried to undertake, pulled inside the line of your vehicle.”

Miss Beth Rickerby, prosecuting, said the Dare caused the accident on the evening of November 8 last year and much of the evidence against him comes from the dashcam of a car which was driving behind him on the road.

She said the 4x4 was pushed into the central reservation but its driver did not make any complaint to the police.

Mr Herc Ashworth, defending, said Dare himself had reported the incident to the police because he felt threatened after the driver of the 4x4 kicked his car after they both pulled over onto the hard shoulder. He said the other driver had also been driving badly.

He said Dare helps run a family tarmac and surfacing business but also has a smallholding with a few animals and work at two different farms. He will suffer by not being able to drive to one of them during his disqualification but hopes to cycle to the other.