Two Bradford police officers could lose their jobs after being convicted of reversing down a motorway, a court heard.

Sergeants Shelton Newsham and Andrew Watson were yesterday banned from driving and ordered to pay hefty fines and costs by magistrates in Dewsbury.

But their solicitor, Damian Kelly, lodged appeals against the convictions, which will be heard at crown court.

Mr Kelly said the officers, who are in charge of more than 40 police officers at Trafalgar House station in Bradford, had also received misconduct notices which could impact on their future employment as police officers.

“There is potential for both of them to lose their jobs,” Mr Kelly told magistrates.

Newsham 35, a custody sergeant, and Watson, 40, a response sergeant, both of Huddersfield, had pleaded not guilty to charges of dangerous driving and driving a vehicle backwards on a motorway but were convicted by the magistrates at an earlier hearing. Their cases were adjourned for pre-sentence reports.

Prosecutor Rory Byrne told the Bench yesterday there had been an accident on the M606 at Chain Bar, near Bradford, at 3.15pm on June 29, 2008, and the motorway was closed.

It was noticed on CCTV that a motorist was reversing up the slip road, causing danger to others, and a police officer was dispatched. When he arrived other vehicles were reversing up the slip road, including the two officers, who were travelling to work in separate cars.

Mr Byrne said the dangerous driving was aggravated because it was on a bend which prevented oncoming motorists seeing the vehicles.

Both officers maintained they had been trying to help officers at the scene after seeing other drivers doing three-point turns and driving the wrong way down the motorway. They wanted to prevent other drivers getting hurt.

Mr Kelly said other members of the public who had been reversing were given fixed penalty tickets. His clients drove backwards for a short distance at a low speed of only 5mph.

Both needed to be able to drive police vans on occasions, he added and he asked the Bench to suspend the bans pending the appeal but that was rejected.

Both were banned for 12 months and ordered to take an extended test after the ban, fined £770, with £400 prosecution costs and a £15 victim surcharge.

A police spokesman later said the force would be investigating the circumstances that led to the charges and would take any necessary disciplinary action, but the officers were working normally.