Driver caught after posting joyride video on YouTube

BRUSSELS—A joyrider who drove his Aston Martin nearly 300 kilometers per hour on a Belgian highway was found by police after posting a video of his high-speed adventure on YouTube, Belgian officials said Tuesday.

The images, which circulated throughout Belgian media, were filmed by a passenger who focused the camera on the speedometer that read 293 kilometers (182 miles per hour).

The video shows the car weaving through reasonably heavy traffic on the E17 highway in Flanders in northern Belgium.

The Dutch-speaking driver, whose face was never seen, was heard describing his Aston Martin as a “Carbon Black Edition” — a hand-painted special model of which only three have been sold in Belgium.

Police tracked down the owner largely because the vehicle is so rare, a spokesman for prosecutors in the Termonde region told the Belga news agency.

The spokesman also said police were able to identify the speeding Aston Martin’s licence plate through other videos that other drivers on the highway posted of the vehicle.

The driver could be prosecuted just on the basis of the video content.

He could be hit with a 2,750 euro ($3,800) fine, while losing both his drivers’ licence and his vehicle, worth an estimated 190,000 euros, according to Belgian media.

By Tuesday evening, the video had been removed from YouTube.