Man acquitted after ‘exaggerating’ tale of record-breaking trip across UK
Thomas Davies was charged after claiming he completed the 837-mile journey from John O'Groats to Land's End in just nine-and-a-half hours
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A man prosecuted over claims he travelled the length of Britain in record time has been cleared of charges after telling a court he had exaggerated his supposed feat.
Thomas Davies, 29, was found not guilty of two counts of dangerous driving and two counts of perverting the course of justice relating to a supposed high-speed dash across the country in September 2017.
He had claimed to have completed the 837-mile journey from John O'Groats in Scotland to Land's End in Cornwall in the fastest ever land time of just nine-and-a-half hours in an Audi A5 S5.
The journey normally takes around 15 hours by car.
Prosecutors alleged he had used two transponders to detect upcoming speed cameras, and also had fake Irish number plates on the car.
Truro Crown Court heard Davies waited six months before boasting about his record-breaking journey on an online blog, and his story later featured in several national newspapers and on BBC Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine show.
But Davies told the court it was not his Audi car, he was not driving and the trip was done in 12 hours.
He said the case against him was "purely circumstantial at best", and that if he had done the speed alleged the car would have been captured by at least one of more than 50 speed cameras on the route.
"The blog is a story, it's an exaggeration of a trip that happened between John O'Groats and Land's End," he told the court.
"This trip did happen, but not how this blog describes it and not how this prosecution has brought this case.
"The prosecution are wedded to this notion this blog is right, the police are wedded to the notion this blog was a detailed description of what happened, it was accurate and they built their case around the blog."
The defendant, who represented himself during the trial, added: "I understand I have done some stupid things, that is obvious.
"I am not the same man I was three years ago and if I could go back and do things differently I would, not in a way of covering my tracks because it's just stupid."
The jury acquitted Davies, of Corwen, Denbighshire, North Wales, of all charges after four hours' deliberations. He hugged a friend as he left court.
Additional reporting by PA