News / Speeder keeps licence
A LOCAL businessman from Lerwick has kept his licence after admitting driving at speeds in excess of 71mph in a 40mph zone in the town.
Abdul Ghufar Razaq, of Upper Baila, was given nine penalty points and a £600 fine after pleading guilty at Lerwick Sheriff Court on Thursday to driving carelessly on South Road on 21 August last year.
Procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie said the electric vehicle’s “extremely rapid” acceleration had a part to play in the speeds.
The charge was initially for dangerous driving, which would have seen the 50 year old be automatically disqualified, but Mackenzie said the public interest would be better served if Razaq was given enough penalty points to take him to the cusp of a ban.
Defence agent Rod McKenzie admitted that the offence was at the “upper end” of a careless driving charge.
He added that Razaq’s wife suffered a “very serious spinal injury” in a car crash and as a resulted relied on the businessman for transport.
This, he said, was a pivotal reason why Sheriff Philip Mann shouldn’t disqualify Razaq from driving.
McKenzie said his client was not used to the acceleration of his new car and added that an indicator which uses sat nav technology and an optical sensor on the outside of the vehicle to inform drivers of the speed limit wrongly displayed 60mph, not 40mph.
Sheriff Philip Mann was persuaded to allow Razaq to keep his licence and agreed that leaving him on the cusp of a ban would have a more “salutary” effect on his driving.
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