Sutherland driver banned after being caught at 110mph on A9
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A health and safety expert was banned from driving for five months after being caught speeding at 110mph.
Police were carrying out speed checks on the A9 at Arpafeelie on the Black Isle near Tore on the evening of April 19, 2021, Inverness Sheriff Court was told on Wednesday.
Officers clocked a pick-up truck being driven by 59-year-old Donald Calder, travelling north at excessive speed on the 70mph dual carriageway when road conditions were fine and dry.
Defence solicitor Graham Mann told Sheriff Robert Frazer: "He hadn't realised it was so powerful."
Mr Mann said his client ran a company which delivered health and safety testing on construction sites and "had at one stage over 100 people working for him". But he has scaled back since then.
"His licence is essential to him," Mr Mann said, and asked the sheriff not to ban Calder, of Poles Road, Dornoch, and to impose penalty points instead.
But the sheriff said that the speed meant "a disqualification is inevitable".
"Driving this road is not without its difficulties and in the recent past there have been fatalities near this location."
He also fined Calder £520.
