There are plenty of ways to attract unwanted attention from the police, and filming yourself driving at 191 mph on a public motorway ranks fairly high on the list. British semi-professional soccer player Connor Charlton has now been sentenced to four years behind bars following a series of dangerous-driving offenses involving his BMW X3 M.
According to The Sun, the 32-year-old Nostell Miners Welfare FC striker recorded himself reaching a staggering 191 mph in the high-performance SUV. That wasn’t the only footage investigators uncovered, either, with videos documenting several other incidents involving extreme speeds and reckless driving.
One clip showed Charlton weaving through traffic at around 160 mph, while another captured the BMW accelerating from a red light and eventually reaching 157 mph. He was also filmed drifting the X3 M around a roundabout with other vehicles nearby.
The videos ultimately became valuable evidence against Charlton. Following an investigation into his driving, authorities uncovered not only the high-speed footage but also evidence of attempts to avoid responsibility for other offenses.
A Crash Led Investigators To The Videos
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The Sun reports that investigators examined Charlton’s BMW and electronic devices following a collision. During that process, authorities discovered a note on his phone containing what prosecutors said was a fabricated explanation of the crash, blaming another motorist who had supposedly left the scene.
Data recovered from the BMW reportedly revealed additional evidence of speeding. The vehicle’s computer showed that it had exceeded 107 mph on eight occasions over the course of a year.
Perhaps the most alarming footage involved a near miss with a white van. Charlton pulled out in front of the vehicle while drifting, narrowly avoided what could have been a serious collision, and then captioned the video “wow” along with a laughing emoji.
Charlton was eventually charged with 10 dangerous-driving offenses. He also faced four counts of perverting the course of justice for arranging for other people to accept penalty points on his behalf.
Four Years In Prison And A Lengthy Driving Ban
Charlton pleaded guilty to all of the charges at Leeds Crown Court, and the court sentenced him to four years in prison and imposed a driving ban lasting four years and seven months.
The sentence covers considerably more than one spectacularly irresponsible 191-mph run. Investigators had built a picture involving repeated dangerous driving and efforts to manipulate the penalty-point system.
The fact that much of the evidence was recorded by Charlton himself makes the case particularly remarkable. Posting videos of illegal driving to social media effectively created a visual record of behavior that prosecutors could later use against him.
That BMW X3 M Wasn’t Stock
There’s another interesting question here: how did an X3 M manage to reach 191 mph in the first place? The BMW X3 M Competition sold in Britain during this generation uses the company’s S58 3.0-liter twin-turbocharged inline-six, producing roughly 503 hp in factory specification. Despite that power, the performance SUV is electronically limited to considerably less than 191 mph from the factory.
That strongly suggests Charlton’s BMW had been modified, at minimum to remove or alter its electronic speed limiter. The S58 also has enormous tuning potential, and modified examples can produce substantially more power than stock, although The Sun describes the SUV only as “souped-up” and does not provide a detailed modification list.
Whatever was done underneath the hood, the X3 M clearly had enough performance to reach a speed normally associated with supercars rather than family SUVs.
A 191-MPH Video With A Very Expensive Ending
Modern performance cars can make extraordinary speeds deceptively accessible, and the X3 M is a perfect example. It combines SUV practicality with the kind of acceleration and power that would have belonged to genuinely exotic machinery not long ago.
Charlton’s case also demonstrates why recording reckless driving for social media can have consequences extending well beyond likes and views. His collection of videos ultimately helped document a pattern of dangerous behavior that ended with a four-year prison sentence and years away from the driver’s seat.