A gardener who was clocked speeding at 111mph was rushing to his girlfriend after she called to say she’d caught Covid and was feeling unwell.
Alexander Chesshire, 33, was so concerned for his now ex-partner that he broke the 70mph, 60mph and 50mph limits along the A92 near Hillside at Portlethen.
Fiscal depute Kiral Bonavino told Aberdeen Sheriff Court how the dad-of-one’s Volkswagen Passat was clocked at 111mph just after 9pm on March 19 this year.
‘He wanted to be by her side’
Chesshire admitted speeding on that stretch of dual carriageway.
Defence agent Gregor Kelly said his client, a seasonal landscape gardener, had received a call from his girlfriend after finishing work and just “wanted to be by her side”.
“He accepts it was an excessive speed and he had no reason to be driving at this speed on a public road,” he said.
“He was driving into Aberdeen from his home in Catterline. He was in a rush at the time as his girlfriend didn’t keep well.
“He had been working, finished and received a voicemail from her saying she felt unwell, had tested positive for Covid and was feeling very unwell.
“He was concerned for her.
“There were other options open to her of course – if she was duly concerned she could have called an ambulance.
“He wanted to be by her side.”
Mr Kelly added that the roads were quiet at the time but that his client accepted he drove at excess speed.
‘Revered in the community’
“He is public-spirited,” he added. “He is a man who appears to be trusted and revered in the community.”
He asked Sheriff Lesley Johnston to impose a short roads ban rather than penalty points as Chesshire’s existing nine points mean he’d get a totting-up ban of potentially much longer.
Sheriff Lesley Johnston fined, of Denside House, Catterline, £420 and banned him from driving for four months.
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