Driving ban for former law chief

A former Solicitor General who sped down a motorway at almost 100mph was banned from driving for six months yesterday.

Top-flight QC and former MP Vera Baird, 60, used all her eloquence in court in an attempt to hang onto her licence.

But magistrates at Pontypridd, south Wales, dismissed her lengthy arguments after she admitted driving at 98mph on the M4 near Miskin.

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They handed her five penalty points which, added to seven already on her licence, triggered an automatic-six month disqualification.

Baird, who was ousted as the MP for Redcar in the General Election, was also fined 400.

She left court to take a train home yesterday and admitted: "It was a fast bit of driving. I thought that the magistrates listened carefully and were perfectly reasonable."

Baird, of Crouch End, London, was caught speeding in her silver Hyundai Coupe on August 30. At the time of the offence, she was still Solicitor General under the last Labour government.

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She said she was driving to see a friend who had had a fall.

Baird had previously been found guilty in her absence but the case was reopened yesterday when she explained she had never received a summons. She said that, in the circumstances, she wanted to claim "as much credit as possible" for her guilty plea.

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