A car company boss drove a £300,000 McLaren supercar along a motorway at more than double the speed limit - driving so fast police motorbikes couldn’t catch him.
Saad Qayyum hit estimated speeds of 140 miles per hour in the sky blue McLaren 765 LT on the M77 motorway - with the car making so much noise police thought it sounded like a “fighter jet”.
He drove the car at speed along the motorway just minutes after he and businessman pal Jason Ahmed picked up the vehicle from the showroom.
Ahmed is the owner of the car but was suffering from a leg injury at the time, so asked Qayyum, the director of firm SI Motors Trading Ltd, to drive.
PCs Gerry Mina and Iain Graham - part of the police escort for former US President Donald Trump in Scotland earlier this month - spotted Qayyum driving the blue race car in March 2021.
Paisley Sheriff Court heard he was driving so fast their police motorbikes, which had a top speed of 124-miles-per-hour, couldn’t keep up with him
Qayyum denied driving dangerously by driving at speeds in excess of 110-miles-per-hour between junctions 4 and 2 of the M77 and went on trial over the claims.
PC Mina, who has 22 years’ police service, said they had been conducting “Covid patrols” in Ayrshire as there were lockdown restrictions in place at the time.
And he said he and PC Iain Graham became aware of Qayyum as they drove back to the National Motorcycle Unit’s base at Glasgow’s Helen Street police station.
The 51-year-old said: “I’d say at that point it was doing a minimum of 70 or 80 miles-per-hour.
“What drew my attention to the vehicle was the noise - it was an incredible noise. I’d liken it to a jet - a fighter jet passing overhead.
“It was doing 70 or 80-miles-per-hour and then it was gone.
“Never, in my experience, have I seen a vehicle on public roads move so quickly.
“I put on blue lights and sirens and we started making off after it. We only caught up with it when it slowed down.
“I looked at my speedometer and I was doing 120. The distance between us was increasing all the time.
“It was way ahead of me. I think it was doing 140 minimum.”
The officer, who has worked in the road traffic department for 16 years, described the driving as “horrendously dangerous” and added: “If he hits a car, it goes without saying, the consequences of that”.
He said it only slowed down and was pulled over when it got stuck behind other cars on the road.
PC Graham has been a traffic cop for 19 of his 23 years as an officer.
The 51-year-old said: “The noise was incredible - I actually thought it was a fighter jet going over the top of us.
“There was vast, rapid acceleration and it just went away. It was away like a shot. Flying.
“I don’t think he was aware that we were there. I could do 124 and I was flat out - I couldn’t go any faster.
“It was going faster than what we were as we weren’t making any ground on it.
“The manner of driving was very poor - very, very poor.
“It’s an incredible machine. It’s one of the fastest produced vehicles that’s ever been made for use on British roads.”
Qayyum claimed he had driven at a maximum of 90-miles-per-hour, but a sheriff dismissed his claims and convicted him of the charge.
Sheriff Anderson banned him from driving for 15 months and fined him £600, plus a £40 victim surcharge.
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