A sawmill worker who drove at one of the highest speeds recorded on the notorious A9 was spared a jail sentence yesterday.
Neil Warner was clocked at 132mph in his high-powered all-wheel-drive Subaru Impreza on a 60mph stretch of single carriageway at Lynphail near Carrbridge.
He was caught by a mobile police patrol doing speed checks at 2pm on November 17 last year.
Warner, of 7 Wood Park, Woodside Avenue, Grantown admitted dangerous driving and was fined £2,500 and banned from the road for three years.
The 44-year-old will have to re-sit the extended driving test before getting his licence back.
His agent, solicitor Willie Young, said his client had sold the rally-bred car the day after the offence.
He added: “His job is not at risk from the inevitable disqualification, although he works as a driver at the sawmill. He earns approximately £1,500 a month.
“This was a very powerful car he had for only six months and he drove it at high speed for a short distance on a straight stretch of road in benign conditions.
“He sold the car the following day.”
Sheriff David Sutherland took several minutes considering Warner’s sentence before deciding not to jail him by the narrowest of margins.
He said: “Despite the road conditions, this is a case of grossly excessive speed and I had been considering a period of imprisonment.
“However, given that you have a clean licence other than a previous speeding conviction, I am narrowly persuaded not to impose a custodial sentence.
“But we are very aware of the danger of such speeds in the Highlands and I will impose a substantial financial penalty.”
Warner winced as he was ordered to pay the fine at the rate of £250 a month.
At his home yesterday he said: “I have got no excuses for what I did. I just had a moment of madness. The car is a supercar. It’s a fast sports car and I only really had it for about four to five months. I sold the car the next day after the offence and have not been driving for a year.
“I was not expecting the fine to be as much as that but it’s fair enough and it’s good to send out a signal and I will accept my punishment.
“The only thing I am annoyed about is that it’s taken 49 weeks for this to come to court.”
Warner said he was not convinced the average-speed cameras, planned for non-dual carriageway sections of the A9 between Inverness and Perth, would make the road safer.
He added: “The speed cameras coming into force is a money-making scheme and I think it’s going to cause more problems if anything, because drivers will go mad on these short bits of dual carriageway where there are no cameras when they get the chance.”
But when asked if he would have been travelling at the speed he was caught doing if the cameras had been switched on, he said: “You’ve got me there. That would have been different.”