Banned, biker aged 70 who hit 138 mph
OAP sparked police chase
AN ELDERLY biker was caught doing 138mph as he and a group of f ri ends enjoyed a weekend motorcycle outing.
Peter Farquhar, 70, hit his top speed on the country roads of Angus before riding through town centre streets at 100mph.
At the same time his friend Roy McPhee, 54, mounted a pavement and rode between parked cars.
The pair were banned from the road and given community service at Arbroath Sheri f f Court yesterday.
An earlier hearing was told how Farquhar had been with a group of bikers, most of them in their 60s and 70s, who had stopped for tea on their way back to Arbroath from a weekend ride to Braemar.
He and McPhee then broke away from the group on to the A933 Brechin to Arbroath road, where police clocked the pair travelling at 138mph.
They failed to stop when officers tried to flag them down and proceeded at speed into Arbroath.
Retired painter Farquhar eventually pulled over as they reached the centre of town but forklift driver McPhee refused to stop.
He mounted a pavement in Helen Street and rode between parked cars but was eventually stopped by a police patrol car.
Fiscal depute Jill Drummond told the court that the pair were first spotted at around 1.50pm on March 31 last year. She said: ‘Both were clocked by a laser gun at 138mph.’
Farquhar and McPhee, both of Arbroath, pleaded guilty to driving dangerously on the A933 and admitted failing to stop when required to do so by the police. Farquhar further admitted driving dangerously at speeds of up to 100mph on Arbroath’s Kirkton Road, while McPhee admitted driving dangerously at up to 100mph on a series of Arbroath streets.
Anne McKeown, defending both men, said Farquhar had began riding scrambler bikes at the age of six and that motorcycling was his enduring passion.
She said that he got his licence 54 years ago and had no previous road traffic convictions.
Miss McKeown said both men had since given up motorbikes and added: ‘This was not planned or premeditated in any way. It was completely spontaneous and spur of the moment.
‘Mr Farquhar describes being overtaken by adrenaline and the heat of the moment. He is a very devastated and humiliated man.’ At a previous hearing, Sheriff Peter Paterson deferred sentence for background reports and said the pair could face a jail term.
But when they appeared for sentencing yesterday, he banned both from the road – Farquhar for three years and McPhee for three years six months – and gave them both 150 hours of community service.
He said: ‘That reflects the level of danger in your driving.’