A ONE year-old child escaped injury after a car lost control on a West Fife road.

The car was being driven by the former partner of Paul Wilkes however, during an argument, he pulled the handbrake suddenly and the vehicle ended up in a grass verge.

Wilkes, 24, of Leishman Drive, appeared for sentencing at Dunfermline Sheriff Court on Wednesday.

He had previously admitted that on December 8 last year at Carnock Road, he culpably and recklessly, whilst a front seat passenger, applied the handbrake while it was being driven causing it to lose control, cross onto the opposing carriageway and come to a halt on a grass verge.

Depute Fiscal Alastair McDermott said the pair had been in a relationship for about a year and had separated but were attempting to reconcile.

The former partner had driven to Dunfermline to pick Wilkes up.

"An argument broke out in the vehicle and the accused shouted "stop the car, let me f****** out" but due to the location, the woman didn't feel it was safe to stop," he told the Court.

"The accused then grabbed the handbrake and pulled it full on causing his former partner to lose control of the car. It went spinning around over the opposing carriageway, mounted the grass verge and came to a halt facing the opposite direction.

"Fortuitously no-one was injured as a result although an ambulance did attended as a precaution to check on the welfare of the one year old."

Defence agent Elaine Buist said during the argument, the woman had struck Wilkes in the face.

"In her statement she accepts her arm or hand had come into contact with the accused's face," she said. "His intention in applying the hand brake was the car would stop. It is fair to say that he was absolutely shocked when the car didn't just stop. He isn't a driver himself."

Sheriff Charles Macnair told Wilkes it had been "remarkably serious, reckless conduct."

He added: "The idea that you think you can pull on the handbrake of a moving vehicle, particularly one with a one year old in the back off it is quite remarkable."

He jailed him for six months to run consecutively to a sentence he is currently serving.