A wealthy English estate owner has dodged a jail sentence by “a hair’s breadth” after admitting hitting 130mph on the North Coast 500 in a blue Ferrari.
Old Etonian Piers Monckton, who owns the Stretton Estate and whose address is given in court papers as the Grade II listed Stretton Hall, Stafford, was not present at the hearing at Tain Sheriff Court because he was on a “pre-arranged family holiday”.
But his solicitor Ronnie Simpson entered a plea of guilty to a single charge of dangerous driving at 130mph, with the court hearing the 59-year-old whizzed past stunned cops and only slowed down for sheep grazing close to the road.
He had originally been accused of hitting 145mph, which he denied, and prosecutors have now accepted a guilty plea to the amended charge.
Fiscal depute Naomi Duffy-Welsh told the court that the offence occurred at around 2.20pm on May 26 2021 on the A838 at Ardmore – a stretch of road that is subject to a 60mph speed limit.
She said police were carrying out static speed checks in an unmarked Volvo when they became aware of a car travelling towards them at speed.
“It didn’t slow on approach to the junction that the police witnesses were located in,” she told the court.
130mph Ferrari speeder slowed for sheep
The court heard that Monckton then navigated a bend at speed before “strongly applying the brakes due to a number of sheep that were grazing at the side of the road”.
Ms Duffy-Welsh told the court: “Police stopped the vehicle and spoke to Mr Monckton and advised him of the speed and he was thereafter cautioned and charged with dangerous driving.”
Mr Simpson, for Monckton, told the court that his client had since disposed of the Ferrari Roma supercar, understood to be worth in the region of £170,000, saying: “The vehicle has been sold, he no longer owns the vehicle.”
Mr Simpson told the court that Monckton had been driving to a friend’s house for a celebration having recovered from a period of ill health.
He described his absent client as “a farmer” and said: “The loss of his license plus the extended test at the end of the period will cause him great difficulty in being able to continue his current role as a farmer.”
“He fully accepts that travelling at his speed is totally unacceptable,” said Mr Simpson, adding: “He has never suggested that the driving was anything other than dangerous. He is expecting the full weight of the law to come bearing down on him today.”
Sheriff Gary Aitken said that father-of-four Monckton was “within a hair’s breadth” of receiving a custodial sentence and that only his clean license had allowed for an alternative to be imposed.
Dangerous driver has ‘sufficient disposable income’
He said: “It would appear that he has sufficient disposable income to deal with a financial penalty.”
The sheriff handed him a fine totalling £7,850.
Monckton was also disqualified from driving for 18 months and will need to sit and pass an extended test before he is allowed back behind the wheel.
