A Porsche driver was caught doing double the speed limit through an NC500 village, a court has heard.
Russell Backhouse’s grey Porsche GT3 – worth more than £180,000 – was spotted by officers as it sped into the village of Melvich on the A836.
Dashcam footage from the police vehicle showed the car travelling at around 60mph through the 30mph limit with its wheels crossing the white line in places.
The expensive supercar only slowed when it caught up to a mobile speed camera van, which was travelling at the correct speed for the road.
Careless driving on NC500 route
Backhouse appeared at Tain Sheriff Court to admit a single charge of careless driving by driving at excessive speeds and driving through bends in the road with wheels on either side of the centre road carriageway.
A plea of not guilty to a charge of driving without the registration mark fixed to the vehicle was accepted by the Crown.
Fiscal depute Shamielah Ghafar told the court that it was around 1.40pm on September 25 last year when officers in an unmarked vehicle spotted the Porsche travelling westbound on the A836 as it entered the village of Melvich.
She said: “They observed a westbound vehicle entering the start of the 30mph zone, quite clearly exceeding the speed limit.”
The police pulled out to follow the vehicle and their speed device “gave a reading in excess of 30mph speed limit”.
Ms Ghafar said that Backhouse’s car then reached speeds of up to 60mph as it travelled at “excessive speed over a distance of 0.8 miles through the village” before its progress was hindered by a mobile speed camera unit travelling at the correct speed for the road.
Backhouse’s solicitor Ronnie Simpson said his client had travelled from New Zealand, via India, to attend the hearing at Tain Sheriff Court and had only recently been released from hospital following an illness.
He told the court the retired 56-year-old, whose address was given in court papers as Thornhill Road, Islington, now lives in Brazil but has family commitments in the UK.
Mr Simpson said Backhouse had been enjoying a trip to Scotland as a “bonding experience” with his son before the latter went to Oxford University to study for a degree in French literature.
“He was doing a tour of the beautiful roads of the Highlands,” Mr Simpson said.
‘He is too fast’
Conceding that the video evidence showed his client was travelling in excess of the speed limit, Mr Simpson said: “He is too fast.”
Inviting Sheriff Neil Wilson to view the dashcam footage of the incident, he said: “Apart from speed, there is nothing amiss with the manner of driving.”
The court was shown a clip from the camera within the police vehicle, which showed the Porsche speeding through the village, passing houses, entrances and a cyclist in the oncoming lane.
After seeing the footage Sheriff Wilson told Backhouse: “You are driving at grossly excessive speed, twice the limit in a part of the village where there are houses by the roadside and entrances.
“I regard this as being very much toward the top end of careless driving”
Noting that Backhouse had previously been disqualified due to penalty points and also had a previous speeding conviction, Sheriff Wilson handed down a six-month road ban and £1,575 fine.
