A DRIVER who reversed his car up an A12 slip road in a “dangerous” manoeuvre has avoided a driving ban.

Claudio Robaldo Mendez, 70, was spotted by police officers backing his car up a one-way slip road leading on to the A12 at Stanway.

The road was at a standstill due to an earlier accident.

After stopping the car and talking to the driver, the officers suggested he had carried out the risky manoeuvre to avoid getting stuck in traffic.

But Robaldo Mendez, of Wilsons Lane, Marks Tey, argued as his car was “overheating”, he didn’t want to his vehicle to break down and cause further congestion.

Appearing at Colchester Magistrates’ Court yesterday, Robaldo Mendez was sentenced for driving without due care and attention.

Jemma Carr, prosecuting, said: “The A12 Chelmsford-bound carriageway was at a standstill due to an earlier road traffic collision.

“As the officers looked across the traffic to the other lane they could see a vehicle reversing up the slip road in the opposite direction to traffic.

“They turned around at the roundabout to get to the slip road and as they arrived at the top they could clearly see a vehicle reversing up the slip road causing traffic joining the A12 to move out of the way.

“The blue lights were activated, but the vehicle continued to reverse.

“Officers got out and approached the window and at this point the driver stopped and got out. He said he had problems with the car and didn’t want to go down the A12 and the vehicle to stop.

“He was asked if he was just trying to avoid traffic, he said ‘no, it is overheating’.

“Upon stating that he could have pulled up on the verge, he said he had thought it would be easier to get off the road.

“Inspection of the gauges inside the car showed they were all in order, there were no signs of overheating.”

Robaldo Mendez said: “I am 70 years of age, this was a very stupid thing to do.”

“Afterwards I reflected on my own actions, and it felt like when you are very young and you have peer pressure to do something wrong, but you still do it.

“I did reverse the car, though the car was overheating.”

Paul Taylor, chairman of the bench, said Robaldo Mendez had carried out a dangerous manoeuvre.

He added: “If you yourself were going down a slip road, you wouldn’t expect to find someone reversing up it - it would be quite a shock.”

Robaldo Mendez was handed seven penalty points and must pay £300.