A motorist has lost his appeal against a conviction for driving without due care and attention on the Mountain Road.

The appeal court said it had no ’lurking doubts’ about the safety of Andrew Brian Byers’ conviction.

Mr Byers was convicted by magistrates following a two-day trial in November last year and was ordered to pay a £1,000 fine plus a contribution towards prosecution costs of £2,736. His driving licence was endorsed with nine penalty points.

But he appealed, claiming that expert evidence in the case was overlooked or ignored.

He had been fined following a collision on the Mountain Road in July 2016.

Four cars, all silver in colour, were travelling in convoy in the direction of Douglas at just after 9am, the leading car being a Ford C Max being driven slowly and carefully by a supervised learner driver.

The drivers of the three cars behind the Ford C Max took it in turns to overtake.

But the appellant, driving a black Bentley Continental GT, appeared behind the Ford Focus and collided with it as it was overtaking the Ford C Max. No-one was injured but the wheel arches of the cars were damaged.

Mr Byers declined to accept a caution or an endorseable fixed penalty notice as he wanted to contest the matter. He was subsequently charged with driving without due care and attention.

In court, the driver of the Ford Focus told justices she had checked her mirrors before beginning her overtaking manoeuvre and there were no cars behind her. She said as she overtook a black car approached at a speed of more than 70mph.

The driver of the third car in the convoy said she did not know where the black car had come from and it must have been going very fast.

She said it touched the silver car and swerved out and went onto the grass verge. She was so concerned about what she had seen she contacted the police.

Magistrates did not accept Mr Byers’ evidence that he caught up with the convoy of silver cars some 300 yards from the 24th Milestone and followed them for 20 to 30 seconds travelling at 35 to 40mph until the cars reached the right hand bend.

During his appeal hearing, Mr Byers’ advocate Jim Travers argued that the justices’s decision was flawed as it failed to make sufficient reference to the expert evidence.

But Judge of Appeal Jeremy Storey QC and First Deemster David Doyle dismissed the appeal.

They said they did have concerns over the expert evidence presented to the justices in this case, but this did not call into question the safety of the conviction.

The difficulty was the lack of physical evidence for the experts to base their opinion on, they said.