Following a Thames Valley Police investigation, a man has been sentenced for dangerous driving and child neglect on the M40.

A judge sentenced Miley Connors, aged 37, of Scant Road East, Hambrook, West Sussex, to two years in prison, suspended for two years, at Oxford Crown Court on Friday (12/4).

The judge also disqualified Connors from driving for two years and he will need to pass an extended retest to get his licence back.

The judge also ordered Connors to complete 250 hours of unpaid work, 120 days of alcohol monitoring, and an accredited thinking skills programme within 20 days, as well as paying £3,000 in a fine and costs.

A jury unanimously found Connors guilty of one count each of dangerous driving and child neglect at the same court on 16 February.

At around 4.10pm on 29 December 2021, police received numerous calls from members of the public about a silver SUV going down the hard shoulder of the southbound carriageway of the M40 at over 100mph and swerving in between traffic, initially in Warwickshire before crossing into Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire.

The car then hit the central reservation on the Shabbington bend between junctions nine and 8A, causing it to spin and lose a tyre.

Fortunately, the car did not hit any other vehicles but the driver, Connors, continued driving to the overbridge near Worminghall, where he got out and started urinating.

A child then got out of the car and ran away up by the embankment.

Officers searched for Connors and the child, with support from the National Police Air Service, and they soon found them nearby. Officers arrested Connors and safeguarded the child.

Connors was charged the following day.

Investigating officer PC Amy Boughton, of the Joint Operations Roads Policing Unit, said: “This was one of the worse pieces of driving I have ever seen.

“Not only is it shocking to watch, it’s gutwrenching to know there was a young child in that vehicle, scared and crying.

“The child was found wet, muddy and cold, and stood over Miley Connors, who was throwing up and incapable of looking after them.

“I can only hope that Connors take this second chance and makes recompense for the lives he could have so easily taken because of his reckless actions.”