A charity fundraiser has admitted driving a Porsche carelessly on an NC500 road.
Michael Hammond, 53, had paid £2,500 to a children’s charity to take the Porsche on a trip to visit the Highlands but ended up on the wrong side of the law.
He was stopped by police officers on the North Coast 500 route after he was spotted driving the sports car at excessive speed while overtaking a cyclist.
Hammond, of Thinford, in County Durham, was not present at Inverness Sheriff Court when solicitor John MacColl entered a plea of guilty on his behalf to a single charge of careless driving.
Fiscal depute Naomi Duffy-Welsh said the incident occurred on April 30 of this year.
She said police were carrying out static speed checks on the A832 at Achanalt, near Garve, when their attention was drawn to the car driven by Hammond.
Porsche on NC500 was ‘in excess of speed limit’
She said: “At 10.10am they spotted a Porsche travelling west at a speed they perceived to be well in excess of the speed limit. They observed the vehicle overtaking a cyclist on the road.”
As a result of his driving, the officers stopped Hammond and he was later charged with a road traffic offence.
In mitigation, Mr MacColl told the court that his client had paid money to take part in a charity drive.
“It wasn’t actually his Porsche,” he added
Mr MacColl pointed out that the offence occurred on a long straight stretch of road and that his client had given the cyclist a “very wide berth” but conceded that this was “no excuse” and acknowledged there had been warning signs in place for the possibility of wild animals in the road.
Sheriff Gary Aitken fined Hammond, who has taken early retirement to care for an ageing parent, £640 and handed him seven penalty points.
