A driver clocked at 111mph on the A9 north of Inverness was distracted by news that his mother was unwell, a court has heard.
Police camera equipment recorded Ross Beaton’s vehicle travelling at 41mph over the speed limit at Arpafeelie on the Black Isle.
But his solicitor said that he had failed to appreciate his speed after being told his mother had fallen ill and needed an ambulance.
Beaton, 23, appeared before Inverness Sheriff Court and admitted a charge of careless driving by travelling in excess of the speed limit on May 4 last year.
Fiscal depute Emily Hood told the court that it was dark and traffic flow was light at the time of the offence.
She said: “Police stationed a camera there and recorded the accused at 111mph on a 70mph road.”
Didn’t appreciate the speed
Solicitor Graham Mann, for Beaton, conceded that his client had been travelling at a “high speed” but explained that it had only been for a short distance.
He said Beaton’s grandmother had died shortly before the incident and his mother had been struggling.
On the night in question, he said, Beaton had “received a telephone call from his stepfather that his mother was being collected by an ambulance”.
He said that in the aftermath of that news, his client had “not fully appreciated his speed”.
He told the court that losing his licence would have an impact on the father-of-one’s work and family life.
Sheriff Sara Matheson banned Beaton, from Muir of Ord, from the roads for four months and fined him £420.
