A lawyer is to go on trial next year after being accused of driving his car with no hands.

Murray McAuley has denied driving near a busy junction while he had a cup in one hand and a mobile phone in the other hand.

The 31-year-old solicitor will now face being on trial at a court where he has regularly appeared to defend his criminal clients.

McAuley entered a not guilty plea yesterday - despite his own solicitor being unable to make it to court because of weather-related travel problems.

Fiscal depute Stuart Richardson said: "If the court is happy to enter his not guilty plea and fix dates, it can be directed to Mr McAuley, the accused, who by sheer coincidence is also a lawyer, it should get to him."

It is alleged that McAuley, who runs his own legal firm, was stopped by police in the centre of Perth and accused of driving without using his hands on the steering wheel.

Perth's Justice of the Peace Court was told that the solicitor denied driving carelessly in Glasgow Road, Perth, on June 24.

He denies failing to maintain proper control of the vehicle and driving without holding the steering wheel and while he was holding a cup in one hand and a mobile phone in the other. He faces an alternative charge of driving while using a mobile phone. The trial was scheduled for March.

McAuley, from Glasgow, has appeared in the court in Perth to represent clients, including some involved in driving offences.

In May this year he told Perth Sheriff Court one of his clients had caused motorway chaos after crashing due to a bout of food poisoning.