A bus driver and former special police constable crushed an elderly man against his own car as he pulled out of a car park.
Nigel Dunn was convicted of causing serious injury to pensioner Les Crichton by driving dangerously after five days of trial in Inverness.
Fiscal depute David Morton told jurors: “This was not a tragic accident with no-one to blame. It was a piece of criminal driving.
A short time later, in the first remote jury trial at the Inverness Justice Centre, the foreman stood before a microphone a mile away in the Eden Court Theatre to deliver a majority guilty verdict.
It was beamed to courtroom 2 with all the jurors seen on a video wall watching the trial unfold on a big screen.
Sentence on Dunn, who was disqualified from driving in the interim, was deferred for a background report. He had his bail continued.
Dunn of Muirton Place, Boat of Garten, had denied driving his Stagecoach bus dangerously in a Carrbridge car park on March 22, 2017, and seriously injuring Mr Crichton, then 74.
He suffered a double fracture to his pelvis and damage to his intestine and spent weeks in hospital and rehabilitation.
Dunn’s employment with Stagecoach ceased two days after the incident. He is now a supermarket worker.
During the trial, the jury heard that 53-year-old Dunn had exchanged words with Mr Crichton prior to him returning from a toilet visit.
The elderly motorist had parked in front of the coach, close to a junction, to be nearer to the toilet building after returning via Carrbridge from Aberdeen with a car for the Harry Fairbairn Inverness franchise.
Mr Crichton was then squashed between his car and the rear of the bus as it moved off as he was walking to enter his vehicle.
He was rolled along the side of the Kia Sportage before falling to the ground and sustaining a head injury.
Fiscal depute David Morton asked the jury to convict Dunn of dangerous driving, saying Mr Crichton’s inconsiderate parking didn’t absolve the bus driver from his responsibilities.
“He was not aware of his surroundings and drove dangerously,” he said.
“He didn’t watch that blind spot. It was all over in two seconds.
“He passed Mr Crichton. He knew he was there. He had a schedule to keep.”
Nigel Beaumont, defending, argued that it was Mr Crichton who was at fault.
During evidence, Dunn had agreed with his assertion the pensioner made himself “the meat in the sandwich”.
“When Mr Crichton came back from the toilet he stood at the rear of his vehicle,” he told jurors.
“Mr Dunn made the perfectly reasonable assumption that he was waiting for the bus to to go and decided to get his bus out of the predicament caused by Mr Crichton’s inconsiderate and dangerous parking.
“Mr Crichton was not in danger at the rear of his car and then decided to move, completely wrongly and dangerously, and did not consider the back of the bus leaving less space with horrendous consequences for him.
“Mr Dunn cannot be looking backwards at the same time as looking forwards.
“How does that fit with dangerous driving?”
The final prosecution witness had been police collision expert Constable Ian Mathers.
PC Mathers accepted Mr Crichton had parked in “an utterly inconsiderate and wrong place”, in close proximity to a bus stop and junction.
However, he added: “But a professional driver would also have to be aware of what was happening at the side and rear of his bus. It has to be done.”
Dunn is to be sentenced on March 11.