A 29-year-old Bishops Cleeve motorist who smashed into the back of another car at high speed on the M5 - leaving a mum and her three young children injured and traumatised - has avoided jail at Gloucester Crown Court.

Grant McLean of Rose Court, Sapphire Road, Bishops Cleeve, was at the wheel of a Mercedes on the motorway when he hit a car in front and a third car in which a family were travelling home from a fishing trip also became involved in the collision and was wrecked.

Video footage of the incident, taken from a following car in the middle lane, was played at court on Tuesday (March 5) and showed two vehicles overtaking and disappearing from view. McLean was in the second of the two cars, doing an estimated 85-90mph, although the actual speed could not be established.

Moments later a cloud of white smoke and debris could be seen rising up from the carriageway ahead of the vehicles in front of the dashcam car.

Vehicles ahead pulled onto the hard shoulder and a man was seen getting out of a pick-up truck to start flagging down vehicles coming from behind. The damaged cars could be seen in the distance on the carriageway.

McLean pleaded guilty to driving dangerously on the southbound carriageway of the motorway near junction 11A at Brockworth, Gloucester, on October 1, 2022.

He was sentenced to an 18 months community order with a requirement to do 150 hours unpaid work and was disqualified from driving for 18 months. The judge, Recorder Don Tait, also ordered him to pay a victim services surcharge.

Passing sentence, Recorder Tait said that having heard the impact the collision had on Emma Chandler and her three children, who were in the third car caught up in the collision, he had no doubt that they had been through a 'dreadful' time.

"The accident itself must have been terrifying for them and the effect it has had on their lives since then is significant," said the Recorder.

"They have also suffered significant financial loss. They have suffered some injuries and, quite clearly, trauma.

"I viewed the dashcam footage and it was quite clear you were driving at an excessive speed."

The only good thing about the incident was that McLean and the other vehicles were fully insured so it would be the insurance companies picking up the cost of the collision rather than the victims themselves, he added.

"You are of previous good character," Recorder Tait told McLean. "That stands you in good stead.

"It cannot be said that you have been driving dangerously habitually.

"This was a dreadful but one-off incident which was entirely unavoidable."

Prosecutor Kate Lewis told the court that the car which McLean had been following in the fast lane before the collision was driven by Mr Gavrila Ivasco. Ms Chandler and her children were in a Ford Focis that was initially in the inside lane and she was moving into the middle lane when Mr Ivasco - with McLean behind him - started to move into the central lane as well.

The collision then ensued when McLean hit Mr Ivasco's car.

The prosecutor told the court "You can see from the video that the defendant was travelling very close behind Mr Ivasco's vehicle. He went straight into the rear of that vehicle."

In her victim impact statement Ms Chandler said the family were all travelling home from a fishing trip they had enjoyed that day.

"My son now still associates fishing with the crash," she stated. "All my children have experienced trouble sleeping since the crash. They have all had flashbacks.

"They all have trouble talking about what happened and two of them, both at secondary school, have missed a fair bit of school time because of the anxiety this has caused.

"Our son has had numerous panic attacks about going back to school. He no longer wants to go out and enjoy himself.

"My youngest son did not understand what had happened for a long time or how serious the accident was. He is now a very nervous passenger, very jumpy.

"Whenever he sees a black Ford Focus like car of the sort we were travelling in he says how sad he is about the crash and how cross he is with the driver who caused it.

"He remembers seeing my face hit the airbag when we crashed. I have been diagnosed with PTSD and am awaiting counselling.

"I have suffered financially - I have still not received a full payout from the insurance company and I have had to replace numerous possessions which were lost or damaged in the crash. The car was a write-off.

"This was the worst day of my life and I am continually haunted by what might have happened, the ifs. It could have been so much worse."

Stephen Donnelly, defending, said "He is deeply sorry for his transgressions on the road that day and indicates, through me, his complete and utter remorse for his actions. He himself had to be cut out of the vehicle he was driving.

"He has suffered his own trauma through this incident and while that does not weigh too heavy, doubtless, in the mind of the court it is nevertheless something he carries with him to this day and will do in the future.

"Fortunately the injuries suffered by the people involved were at the lower end of the scale.

"He has been a driver since 2012 and save for one early transgression early on in his first year of driving, an excess speed matter, he has had a clean and good driving record.

"He works in a warehouse and receives £1,600 a month take home pay but he has a number of debts he has accumulated in part as a result of being disqualified when he pleaded guilty. He has had to use taxis more regularly than he would otherwise have done.

"He has current debts of about £10,000 which are in the hands of a debt help agency.

"Finally, he extends his fulsome apology to all involved in this case."