A LEADING human rights lawyer has narrowly escaped a road ban at Selkirk Sheriff Court after being accused of dangerous driving. 

Fifty-nine-year-old Mark Muller KC was convicted instead of the lesser charge of careless driving following an incident captured on an off-duty police officer’s dash-cam. 

Sergeant David Waddell, of Police Scotland, told a trial that he would have been involved in a head-on collision with Muller if he had not slowed down. 

He said he had just left the boundary of Peebles on the A703 road heading north on the afternoon of March 3 last year when he was confronted by Muller’s Range Rover which was overtaking a vehicle and on his side of the road. 

Sergeant Waddell said he had to veer to the left as Muller got past the vehicle and returned to his carriageway and the police officer said as the vehicle passed, he slowed down and brought his car to a halt. 

Asked by prosecutor Peter Finnan what would have happened if he had not slowed down, Sergeant Waddell replied: “I would have been involved in a head-on collision with the oncoming vehicle.”

Muller was charged with dangerous driving which carries an automatic disqualification. 

It was alleged he had overtaken other road users when it was unsafe to do so and did drive into the path of oncoming vehicles whereby other road users had to take evasive action to avoid a collision. 

But after viewing the dash-cam footage and hearing evidence from witnesses, Sheriff Robert Vaughan convicted him instead of careless driving. 

Muller was fined £400 with a £20 victim surcharge and had four penalty points placed on his licence. 

He was charged as Mark Muller but goes by the name of Mark Muller Stuart and lives at the historic Traquair House near Innerleithen.