I’m intrigued that the charge was ‘dangerous driving’ and he was convicted when it seems so hard to get that charge to stick when a cyclist has been killed.
I suspect it’s back to the ‘could have been me’ on the part of the jurors. Running down a cyclist whilst distracted by the radio/mobile phone/”low winter sun” the jury think “there but for the grace of god go I” and acquit but they can’t imagine driving their car up Snowdon even though the danger to anyone else would be no worse than someone legally driving on a BOAT.
I’ve come across enough 4x4s off road over the years on steeper, more technical, trails than the Llanberis path – the Gap in the Brecons (very steep up from the stream), on the steep side of the Garburn pass before any of the improvement works (a frontera, strangely enough, with the driver stoving in the side on the rocks.
Ignore for a moment the damage (which should have been criminal damage) or the trespass (? driving where not allowed to) and this seems a very strange charge to have brought. Far far more danger to the public from some idiot doing 50 in a residential area.