THE victim of a dangerous driver from Bell Busk, whose family was left terrified by his antics on the M6 motorway, has welcomed the four-month sentenced handed down to the 41-year-old on Friday.

Gareth Bedford, who was found guilty of dangerous driving at Preston Crown Court last month, was also banned from driving for two years, must re-take his driving test and was ordered to pay £1,200 court costs.

At the trial, the court heard that he swerved his Mercedes Sprinter towards the car driven by Emma Smith, 33 at the time, which also had her husband Cameron in the back with their one-year-old baby daughter, Erin.

Bedford pulled sharply in front of their vehicle, drove close behind it and appeared to try to pull off a wing mirror - all while driving along the motorway.

Mr Smith, 38, a local government officer, who said it was a terrifying experience, had the presence of mind to take a photograph of Bedford as he attempted to grab the wing mirror.

He said: "There was nothing we could do. We were on the motorway at speed and some lunatic in a van is swerving at us.

"It went on for 15 minutes. He kept swerving at us, pulling up behind us and pulling in front of us.

"He tried to rip the side mirror off as we were driving along. He followed us off at junction 28 and bumped into us."

Mr Smith attended court on Friday (July 10) to hear the sentence and said how the judge had spoken severely to Bedford after she was informed he had his own business, young children and needed to drive for his business.

"The judge told him he should have thought about that. She said we had a young family and he behaved with disregard to our safety."

"We're pleased with the sentence - I think it's fair. The judge saw how very fortunate we were he didn't cause a crash which could have been very serious or fatal," said Mr Smith.

The incident happened on July 16 last year and his 34 year-old-wife had been unable to drive on the motorway for some time after the ordeal.