A CROSSGATES man decided he would not be held up by a tail-back on the M90 motorway.

Instead, Pawel Powszek stopped his car, performed a U-turn and drove back up the Halbeath slip road in the wrong direction.

His antics were captured on CCTV and landed Powszek in the dock at Dunfermline Sheriff Court.

Powszek, a 42-year-old company director, of Bruce Road, admitted that on March 8 he drove carelessly on the sliproad to the M90, junction 3, at Halbeath.

He brought his car to a halt, causing drivers of other vehicles to take evasive action, reversed along the slip road, turned his car and drove up the slip road in the wrong direction.

Depute fiscal Laura McManus said the incident occurred at around 1pm when there was a long queue of traffic on the M90 following an accident.

Powszek had gone on to the slip road and was planning to drive south on the M90 when he saw the tail-back.

He stopped his car then reversed, with other cars having to drive around him. He then turned his vehicle around and drove back up the slip road in the wrong direction so that he could get back on to the roundabout and go another way.

Defence solicitor Alexander Flett said: “He was going from Crossgates to South Queensferry. There had been an accident on the M90. He had a four-year-old child in the car with him.

“Initially he sat there not knowing what to do but he saw another driver turning around. He did the same but he knows he shouldn’t have done it. It was not a great piece of driving.”

“That’s an understatement,” said Sheriff Pino di Emidio.

He imposed a £640 fine and endorsed Powszek’s licence with seven penalty points.

“Very fortunately, harm was not caused by this or else a more serious view would have been taken,” the sheriff commented.