A BANNED motorist who denied committing one of the most serious cases of disqualified driving seen by a court was only caught because the accident he was in was filmed by a television crew.

Carl Hillary was 11 months into a three-year driving ban when he got behind the wheel of a 26-tonne cement mixer in July last year.

When he was arrested in December for driving while disqualified, he told police they had the wrong man.

However, magistrates were told yesterday that officers knew he was lying because the accident was filmed by a television crew who had been following the Yorkshire Air Ambulance service for a programme called Helicopter Heroes.

The programme featured Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond, who was saved by the air ambulance after an accident at Elvington Airfield, near York, in September 2006.

On July 11, the helicopter was called to a serious accident at Myton-on-Swale, North Yorkshire.

Emergency crews found Hillary, 38, pinned behind the wheel of the Mercedes truck.

At one point, a surgical team was flown to the scene to amputate his leg, but he was rescued in time and flown to Harrogate District Hospital.

Hillary was arrested and questioned in December, but denied being the driver. It was only when he learnt of the BBC footage that he confessed.

Sarah Tyrer, prosecuting, said: "Unfortunately for Mr Hillary, a BBC crew was actually filming the air ambulance for a programme that was subsequently shown."

Hillary's solicitor, David Malone, conceded his client's case "was not sustainable".

At Northallerton Magistrates' Court yesterday, he pleaded guilty to driving while disqualified.

Magistrate Caroline Thornton-Berry said: "This is one of the most, if not the most, serious cases of driving while disqualified we have ever seen.

"It is just by good luck that nobody was killed. We appreciate that you yourself suffered injury and that is something you will have to live with."

She said he had been driving a heavy vehicle for money while disqualified, at a speed that caused it to overturn, then "deliberately planned to evade detection".

Ms Thornton-Berry said he would have got away with it had it not been for the BBC's film.

Hillary, of Lancaster Road, Consett, was disqualified from driving until May 2011 and sentenced to 24 weeks in jail, suspended for two years.

He was given a supervision order and told to pay £90 court costs.

2:03am Friday 16th May 2008

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