Video: Motorist jailed after driving wrong way along M25 for nine miles before crashing

A DRIVER has been sentenced to 14 months in a young offenders’ institute and banned from driving for three years after going the wrong way round the M25 for nine miles.

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Mitchell Locke, 20, from Kenley, south London, drove his black BMW anticlockwise on the clockwise carriageway of the M25 in Kent before trying to join the wrong side of the A2.

The 10-minute journey came to an end when the driver, who had allegedly been smoking marijuana, smashed into two other vehicles on a slip road.

Gemma McCarthy, who was in one of the other vehicles, was taken to hospital and treated for cracked ribs and whiplash.

Dartford and Gravesham magistrates’ court was shown footage of Locke’s death-defying drive, much of which was captured on motorway CCTV cameras.

Police said motorists began calling 999 with reports of a vehicle driving the wrong way on the M25 near junction 4 shortly before 2.30pm on September 2, 2014.

Sergeant Rob Dell from the roads policing team said: “For around 10 minutes Locke travelled in the wrong direction on a major motorway and a major dual carriageway.

“Where there was no hard shoulder, he would move out into the live carriageway into oncoming traffic. It is remarkable there were no serious injuries.”

Once his ban is over, Locke will have to take an extended driving test to get behind the wheel again.