A 24-year-old man was found guilty of dangerous driving after trial yesterday for overtaking at 121mph on a dual carriageway stretch of the A9 on the Black Isle.
Gregor Riggs, who gave his address in court as 20 Logie Place, Conon Bridge, was travelling north at 51mph above the speed limit in his Honda Civic R Type when police clocked him between the Allangrange and Munlochy junctions.
Following a trial at Inverness Sheriff Court, Sheriff Murdo Macleod said that Riggs had performed a “shocking bit of driving” before banning him for a year and fining him £800.
Yesterday the court heard evidence from the two police witnesses who stopped and cautioned Riggs shortly after the incident, which happened at about 10.55pm on September 19 last year.
Constable Martin Macrae and Sergeant Angus Murray, of the traffic patrol unit in Dingwall, said that after recording the speed they activated the blue flashing lights above their unmarked car which caused Riggs to “break heavily” as he pulled back into the inside lane.
They both said that Riggs’s two-litre, six-speed car was about 450 yards away as he overtook a car travelling in the inside lane.
But yesterday Riggs argued that the blue lights only came on once he was 50 yards past the unmarked police car, which by that point had moved into the central reservation ready to pursue.
Riggs, who works locally as a joiner and needs a van, added that he only realised it was police after spotting a high visibility jacket worn by the passenger, Constable Macrae.
Defence solicitor Graham Mann said that his client’s evidence suggested that he had slowed down of his own accord as opposed to only having done so because he noticed the blue lights.
But Fiscal depute Stewart MacIver questioned Riggs’s version of events and stressed the “very high speed” and various “potential hazards” in the area, including a nearby junction and animals crossing the road.
Sheriff Macleod said: “You were driving at 121mph in the dark. The first police officer described that as ‘seriously fast’ and overtaking a vehicle while driving at this speed, near to a junction, and we have heard there are potential hazards whether it be sheep, cows, deer or foxes.
“Looking at that evidence alone I am satisfied your driving falls far below what would be expected for a competent and careful driver. It was dangerous. I have little hesitation of finding you guilty of this charge”.
