Speeder allowed to keep licence

The A9 is known for its accident blackspots

A judge has let an Edinburgh father of a sick child keep his licence after accepting his explanation for driving at 115mph.

James Macgee, 20, admitted speeding on the A9 at Daviot, near Inverness, on 25 May.

But the student pleaded with a sheriff he needed his licence to take his ill baby to hospital.

Magee was fined £300 and had six penalty points imposed on his licence at Inverness Sheriff Court on Thursday.

Magee's lawyer told Inverness Sheriff Court: "His young child does not keep good health and requires two to three emergency admissions to hospital each month."

You are perhaps fortunate nothing happened on this occasion Sheriff Phillip Mann

Sheriff Phillip Mann said: "Purely on the basis that you have a child who may require to go to hospital on an emergency I will refrain from disqualification."

However, he added: "Driving at this speed is entirely out of order. You were grossly in excess of the speed limit. Speeding can cause all sorts of tragedies.

"You are perhaps fortunate nothing happened on this occasion."

Open road

Depute fiscal Alison Smith told the court the stretch of dual carriageway, a 70mph zone, was dry and the volume of traffic moderate when the offence was committed at 1540 BST.

Magee's defence solicitor said Macgee had purchased a car too powerful for his driving expertise and had since sold the vehicle.

He added: "He was in a queue of traffic on the single carriageway then came to the dual carriageway and accelerated.

"The car was more powerful than the one he had prior to this and had just bought it one month beforehand. This was the first opportunity he had to drive the car on the open road."