'173mph driver' spared jail term

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Officers recorded the remarkable speed for Tex O'Reilly's Lotus Elise as he drove along a country lane in Derbyshire last July, Derby Crown Court was told.

But defence lawyers successfully argued the 36-year-old Derbyshire builder's unmodified car had a top speed of 127mph and he pleaded guilty to dangerous driving on the basis that he had driven at just 105mph.

A recording of 173mph would usually have warranted a jail term, but the prosecution failed to disprove the defence claims and accepted O'Reilly's basis of plea.

The father-of-three from Canal Bridge, Willington, pleaded guilty to a charge of dangerous driving and was given a £5,000 fine and two-year driving ban.

Judge Andrew Hamilton said: "May I make it absolutely clear that had you been driving at 150mph you would have been going immediately to prison.

"However, you were not driving at 150mph, you were driving at 105mph, and for whatever reason the prosecution have accepted that basis of plea, and that puts the case in a different light."

After the hearing, a Derbyshire Police spokesman said: "As far as we are concerned these (Police Pilot) devices are used by a vast number of police forces and are highly accurate.

"There are systems built in to detect errors and to make sure that the devices are working."