A TAXI boss tried to pin a speeding offence on a former employee who owed him money, a court heard.

Jamie Lyons, 41, of Windsor Road, Weymouth, was found guilty of perverting the course of justice at Dorchester Crown Court, after claiming a former employee was the driver of a car that was caught speeding through a 30mph zone.

A Vauxhall Zafira registered to Lyons was caught speeding at 45mph on Blandford Road in Hamworthy at 2.11am on Friday, June 9, 2013.

Lyons told the court that it was one of the cars used by taxi drivers at his firm Streetcars and he believed his former employee, Gary Dunlop, had been driving the vehicle on the date in question. However, Mr Dunlop, who worked for Lyons’ for less than a week in May 2013, was working for Weymouth and Portland Borough Council on the date in question and told the court he only ever drove a Toyota Avensis while working at Streetcars.

The court heard Mr Dunlop began working for Lyons on May 15, 2013, and quit the job after just six days when he struggled to make enough money.

Mr Dunlop told the court that after leaving Streetcars he owed Lyons money, due to the cost of getting Mr Dunlop insured to drive the cars, and said his former boss had threatened to ‘break his legs’ and ‘burn his house down’ if he did not pay him money back.

Mr Dunlop said he had refused to pay any of the money back until he saw a copy of the invoice from insurers to prove the actual amount he owed.

The court heard a series of texts, some abusive, exchanged between the pair that were provided from the defendant’s mobile phone.

Mr Dunlop informed the police that he had been threatened by Lyons, which led to police tracking him down to question him about threatening behaviour.

Lyons told the court that he had checked records at the time of filling in the form and found the car in question was not on shift.

He then said he asked a colleague who thought Mr Dunlop had been driving the vehicle, which he thought to be true. Prosecuting, Nicholas Tucker, suggested Lyons didn’t check any records and only said Mr Dunlop had been driving the car as a ‘petty act of retribution’.

Defending, Timothy Shorter, argued that the only thing Lyons was guilty of was stupidity and carelessness.

It took jurors just over an hour to reach a guilty verdict.

Lyons will appear at Bournemouth Crown Court for sentencing on Friday, November 7.