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This shocking footage shows a Kirkby taxi driver speeding through Liverpool streets at up to 80mph – putting pedestrians and other drivers “at high risk”.

Kieran McKechnie, 28, took his Vauxhall Astra taxi on the two-mile race from Boundary Road in Kirkdale and through Walton, before smashing into a stationary car at the junction of Breeze Hill and Southport Road.

A judge at Liverpool Crown Court called his actions “astonishing, breathtaking and horrific” after viewing this dashcam footage, which shows him accelerating then driving at 78mph along Smith Street in Kirkdale and 80mph on County Road in Walton.

It also records McKechnie ignoring red lights, going over speed bumps at 45mph and ignoring a give way sign close to a mum and her children.

After crashing, he ran away from the scene of the accident.

Chris Taylor, Crown Advocate with Mersey-Cheshire Crown Prosecution Service said: “The defendant drove at high speeds of up to 80 mph along busy streets with no thought for others. There was a high risk that he would collide with another vehicle.

“At one point there was a mother with children on the pavement. There was the potential for a real tragedy.”

On Monday the court heard McKechnie lost control after learning his partner was seeing another man.

At the time of the offence on Sunday, August 16 last year he was employed as a driver for Delta taxis, but was not on duty.

Gerald Baxter, defending, said he had come to court as “a very remorseful man”.

He said: “The reason for it, but he agrees that it doesn’t amount to any justification, is that he had found out that his partner was seeing someone else.

“He’s lost a great deal, including his livelihood, and he faces a period of imprisonment separated from his daughter. He is thoroughly ashamed of what he did.

“He says he’s learned his lesson and in future will control himself if ever he is in a stressful situation like that.”

McKechnie, of Anders Drive, Kirkby, was jailed for 14 months and banned from driving for 31 months after admitting dangerous driving.

He was also sentenced for a bail act offence after failing to turn up to court last week.

Judge Norman Wright told him: “You put your own life at risk in the way you drove that vehicle, without regard to any other traffic on the road, be it oncoming or overtaking, bus or cyclist, through red lights as if they didn’t exist, and over speed bumps.

“Your own life was at risk, as were any other road users that you might have collided with.”