Shocking dashcam footage shows a reckless motorist clocking speeds of up to 125mph on a quiet motorway - with his five children in the back of his car.

The unnamed driver was caught by traffic cops who followed him for five miles as he drove more 55mph above the speed limit of the M1, which was quiet due to lockdown.

In the unsettling footage, the driver was stopped by West Yorkshire Police and given the stark warning: "If you have a blowout at that speed, all your kids are dead."

In an audio conversation, overlaid on the footage from the police care, an officer reprimands the man for "driving at a great rate of knots" with children on board."

He tells the motorist: "I've done a following check on you when I stay behind you and I think you got up to 125 miles per hour.

"You've got your five children in that car and you're travelling at 125 miles per hour. If you have a blowout at that speed, all your kids are dead. You're going to kill them all.

"I appreciate they're in their seats but if they're going from 125 to zero then their internal organs are going to continue in their bodies.

"When the bodies stop, the internal organs don't."

The officer said he followed him for 5.1 miles after he was overtaken by the driver at junction 44 of the M1 south of Leeds.

Police released the footage, from 20 May 2020, as part of a new anti-speeding campaign launched as lockdown begins to be eased.

The force shared the footage alongside a message to drivers to be careful as the countryiwide lockdown eases and more cars head back onto the roads.

The footage was released as forces across the country blasted speeding motorists for taking advantage of empty motorways to drive at dangerous speeds.

Chief Inspector Lisa Kirkland, Head of West Yorkshire Police’s Roads Policing Unit, said: "During lockdown even though traffic was down 70 per cent, we saw an increase in the number of people taking advantage of the quiet roads to speed.

"We also saw more people use the roads to cycle and more pedestrians and joggers on the streets.

"For the month of April we issued 588 speeding tickets. We also listened to members of the public who told us where speeding was a problem and deployed patrols to those areas.

"It’s a known fact that speeding causes road traffic collisions. There were nine fatal collisions last year where speed was a factor.

"If you’re caught speeding the consequences could be you lose your licence, more points on your licence which in turn will see your insurance go up.

"If disqualified you could lose your job and your livelihood or even worse you could seriously injure yourself or others because your speed caused a collision.

“Going over the speed limit can have fatal consequences for the person driving the car, passengers and others on the road.

"Our NHS colleagues are already under extreme pressure – it is important, more than ever, that drivers do not add to this.

“This year, we have more dedicated roads policing officers working on the roads of West Yorkshire to prevent the devastation that speeding can cause. We will not tolerate people risking their own and others road users’ lives by speeding.

"We all have a responsibility to play in keeping our roads safe, please slow down and save lives."