£172 fine. WTF! I got fined £160 for using a mobile phone.....

It does seem to be unusually lenient.

At 150mph I'd argue you must be at least as at risk of an accident as someone who is just over the drink drive limit. Yet the minimum ban for drink driving is a year IIRC.

I was in court once to plead to keep my licence after totting up my points over 3 years (easy done when travelling alot). To top it off, the last time i was caught, there was a 5 days gap until 3 points came off but this made no difference.
I had a solicitor for the case and he said to me at the time, if i had been going faster than the speed i was going, then they could try for excessive speeding which carries a maximum of a 56 day ban!
Instead because i was only slightly over the limit then i had to take it as a normal speeding offense and that meant i was up for totting my points up which meant if i hadnt pleaded for extreme hardship then i would of been banned for 6 MONTHS!!!
Go figure...lol

Excessive speeding = 56 days!!
Normal driving and totting points over 3 years = 6 Months

I think the point with totting up is it proves an ongoing issue rather than a one off offence.

I still think its very lenient as was the fine especially as it was apparently the worst driving the magistrate had ever seen!

I was thinking the same about the magistrate. Perhaps they're the same as 90% of other road users now and are oblivious to what's going on around them.

I'd suggest your mate buys a lottery ticket

I got fined more than twice that for not submitting my name and address details in the prescribed manner.

While I was there, a young chav was convicted of no tax, no MOT and no insurance. His "fine" was to sit in the courtoom all day and witness the justice system in action.

Seems lenient sentencing is simply a matter of finding a Mag who's had a good day....

Amazing!

Means testing in action. Those that can pay.

Yup. So an unemployed knobber walks away almost untouched. 56 days? WTF

Blimey! If he is unemployed, should be doing some really unpleasant community service. Unemployed but can afford a powerful motorbike, yeah

My mum's a mag, she would have thrown away the key!

I think the issue is that the sentencing guidelines don't cater for 149mph so the mag can be mean and make something up or not.

I'd personally rather our prisons were full of real criminals.

You cannot get a 'one year ban' for speeding. 56 Days is at the high end of the guidelines, so he didn't get off lightly at all, but got a fair conviction.

No but you can get a one year ban for dangerous driving. Is 149mph not dangerous? how about 159mph? 169? etc. I dunno.

It's not that you 'can' get a ban for dangerous driving, the minimum penalty for a DD conviction is a 12 month ban.

He's unemployed at the moment, presumably he hasn't always been so, and doesn't expect that he'll never work again.

I had two motorbikes when I was unemployed.

And is community service even an option for a speeding charge, which is what he faced?

No idea if he'll work again, be tough if his chosen profession involves driving a company vehicle having now been banned

Going at such speed regardless of the road, the time etc, I don't think it should have only been a speeding charge, but that's my view

Of course you can. You are referring to the England & Wales sentencing GUIDELINES, not the law. The penalties for sppeding set out in statute are 2 - 6 penalty points or discretionary disqualification. Discretionary means that the court can ban you for as long as they think fit in the circumstances of the offence. The guy in this case has actually "got away with it" as the sentencing guidelines for the level of speed involved are for a much higher sentence.

And for all you Scots, or visitors from the South, ignore everything said in relation to thes guidelines. More than 50% oer the limit or over 100 mph, and you are most likely to face a S.2 Dangerous Driving charge, although they may add an alternative of speeding as a fall back position for them ( that's not a choice for you but to stop you getting away with nothing if the court does'nt feel dangerous is proved ). If lucky enough to get speeding you are going to be lucky to get away with a minimum 3 month disqualification, but I routinely see courts imposing 6 - 12 month bans for anything over 100 mph even when only charged as/ convicted of speeding.



No - fine and points endorsation/ban only. Community service is a direct alternative to imprisonment.

Right just spoke to my other friend who was caught speeding at 159mph and he tells me that due to a clerical error by the police he will not be prosecuted .His solicitor says that its pass the 6 months mark anyway . Some people have all the luck or none depending on what way you look at this .

I spoke to someone who works for the Oxfordshire County Council and according to her the 6 month rule is a myth.

I feel my atheism wavering.

Is that fact connected with the clerical error.

No the first guy who did 149mph runs the church group . The second guy who was doing 159mph got off with the clerical error .

Thats interesting ?

lost mine for 6 months under the old system for 3 speeding endorsements in 2 years.
138 in a 70 on a GPZ900R was the final nail.
my licence has recovered since this blip 30 years ago, and i haven't been caught since [touches wooden desk].