An Oswestry driver drove at 85mph on a dual carriageway – with his three-year-old daughter on his lap, a court heard.

The child was seen by police moving repeatedly between the front passenger seat and the lap of Richard Hill on the main A55 coast road in North Wales.

Mr Hill, 33, a businessman from Oswestry, denied dangerous driving on the A55 at Colwyn Bay.

But he was convicted at Caernarfon Crown Court yesterday – he had accepted he was driving without due care and attention.

The court heard Hill, who has an apartment in Pickford Street, Great Ancoats, Manchester, was seen by a traffic constable driving at between 72-74mph in a 50mph limit last June.

Then the speed of his Jaguar XJ6 increased to 85mph in a 70mph zone. Constable Geraint Roberts said he had seen the Jaguar car veering from side to side in the outside lane.

He said he had seen the child moving from the driver’s lap to the front passenger seat on at least five occasions before he stopped the car.

Hill claimed the youngster had freed herself from a child seat in the back of the car during the journey to Abersoch – he said she was not on his knee.

Hill insisted the Jaguar had darkened windows and disputed the Constable could see inside.

“I didn’t drive with the due care and attention required, but I don’t believe I was driving dangerously,” Hill told the court.

Richard Edwards, prosecuting, said a careful and competent driver would not allow a child to move freely from the passenger seat to his knee while travelling at 20mph above the speed limit.

Hill accepted that he drove without due care and attention. But the jury found him guilty of the more serious offence.

Judge Nicholas Woodward adjourned the case for the completion of pre-sentence reports, ahead of sentencing at Warrington Crown Court next month.

The reports are expected to look at the possibility of a community punishment and Hill was given an interim driving ban ahead of the next hearing.

He faces a disqualification with a requirement to take a re-test.

By Sue Austin