A Skye bed and breakfast owner made an outburst in Inverness Sheriff Court yesterday when she was banned from driving for three months, having chosen to drive to the city.
Ruth Macrae, 54, of Braeside in Portree, admitted careless driving by speeding and overtaking a car which was already using a 2-plus-1 overtaking lane on the A9 Inverness-Perth road at Nuide near Newtonmore.
Sheriff Gordon Fleetwood banned Macrae for three months and fined her £400.
The incident happened at about 9.20am on October 18, 2014.
Fiscal Fraser Matheson told the court that police had observed a silver Peugeot travelling south in the overtaking lane and observed a Ford Focus C Max crossing double white lines and overtaking it.
There was no suggestion that a vehicle was travelling in the other direction at the time.
Macrae was driving at excessive speed according to estimates made by the constables, but no official reading was taken.
After being sentenced, Macrae said: “This is ridiculous. How will I run my business? I have been driving for years and have never done anything wrong. I crossed a white line and I could see for miles.”
After Macrae left the courtroom her solicitor Shahid Latif informed Sheriff Fleetwood that she had driven to court in the morning and asked him to consider suspending the ban to allow her to drive home.
Sheriff Fleetwood said: “In the narration given by the Crown I was in no doubt that this was a case that would merit a disqualification. If your driving licence is so important then the time to think about it is behind the wheel.”
An appeal was lodged by Mr Latif and an interim suspension of the disqualification was agreed allowing Macrae to drive home yesterday.