by Craig Borland

A PILOT hoping to join the RAF has been banned from driving for two years after a violent outburst at police who stopped him while he was behind the wheel.

Hamish Hardy reacted angrily after being stopped by officers on suspicion of driving without due care and attention.

Hardy, of Winton Drive in the Kelvinside area of Glasgow, struggled violently with two police officers after he was arrested and taken to Clydebank police station, where he failed to provide two specimens of breath to allow police to find out whether he had been drink-driving.

Hardy, 24, denied four charges against him, but was found guilty at a trial of driving without due care and attention, resisting, obstructing or hindering police, and failing to provide two breath samples without reasonable excuse.

An interim ban was put in place after his conviction, and sentence was deferred for good behaviour and for him to seek employment.

Hardy’s solicitor told a January 12 hearing at Dumbarton Sheriff Court: “He has been buying, restoring and selling cars online with the help of his father, and has £3,000 set aside to pay a financial penalty.

“He is a fully qualified transport pilot, and is hoping to join the RAF, but the cut-off age to do so is 25 and he is 24, though the RAF is aware of his position.

“He may also seek employment with an airline. He is a first offender and is unlikely to trouble the justice system again. He wants to advance his career and get his life back on track.”

Hardy’s solicitor told the court his client had taken exception to the methods of restraint used by the two police officers, and said that following investigations two officers had been made subject to “internal police procedures”.

Hardy was found guilty of causing a motor vehicle to exit Horseshoe Road in Bearsden and enter adjacent Roman Road at excessive speed, and of failing to keep proper control of the vehicle, whereby it travelled on to the opposite carriageway. The offence, and those committed later at Clydebank police office, all took place on June 30, 2015.

At his trial Hardy was found not guilty of repeatedly kicking one of the arresting police officers on the body.

Sheriff William Gallacher told him: “This is a matter that has caused you anxiety and stress, but you brought that on yourself.

“It is something you should never have got involved in at all. Then matters simply got out of hand, and I still struggle to understand why. I’m content to bring the matter to an end today.

“I make no comment at all in respect of any other issues that might concern the police officers involved, although it does seem to me that it was not designed to be an attack on them, but an inability by you to focus on what was required of you.”

Hardy was banned from driving for six months and fined £250 for driving without due care and attention, and fined a further £500 and banned for 15 months from the date of his interim disqualification for failing to provide samples of breath. On the charge of struggling violently with the police, he was admonished.