A row has broken out after the blind land-speed record set by an ex-policeman who lost his sight in a high-speed crash was snatched away by a sighted driver wearing a blindfold.

Disabled groups have hit out at the Guinness Book of Records decision to accept the new record by motoring writer Alistair Weaver.

Wearing a blindfold, he reached speeds averaging 140mph in an Audi S8 at Elvington airfield near York in April.

In doing so he beat the previous record of 131mph set by blind 44-year-old Ken Moss of Scarborough in 1999 in a turbo-charged MG EXF racing car.

Ken was blinded in both eyes after a crash with a 30-ton lorry while following a suspected stolen car in November 1992. His injuries were so severe doctors only gave him five per cent chance of surviving.

A spokesman for the Royal National Institute for the Blind said yesterday: "We believe that to be eligible to hold the world blind land speed record competitors must have a genuine sight problem.

"For sighted competitors to simply wear a blindfold whilst making their attempt is inappropriate as this is a world apart from the reality of actually being blind or partially sighted."

The campaigning magazine Disability Now has also criticised the Guinness decision.

Editor Mary Wilkinson said "We have put pressure on the Guinness World Record bosses to do something about the title and they have changed it to the blindfold landspeed record but that doesn't help blind people."

Ken Moss said he felt cheated. "I don't want it sound like sour grapes for I would have been happy for another blind person to have beaten me but to lose the title this way, one which I worked so hard to claim, does not seem fair.

Mr Weaver said he had had not intended to rob a blind person of the record. "My breaking the record does throw extra attention on the feats of disabled people. I would be very happy if both mine and Ken's records were recognised as separate titles," he said.

A Guinness Book of Records spokesman said: "We don't discriminate between people who have and people who do not have disabilities. The record is for the fastest blind driving."