North Yorkshire’s fastest speeder filmed at 144mph in 70 zone

Gary Dobson, 40, of Old Lee Bank in Halifax, was given a six-month driving ban today after he was captured by officers from North Yorkshire Police riding at 144mph in a 70mph zone on the A63 near South Milford on October 7.

His conviction comes only weeks after another motorcyclist, Steven Graham Smith, also 40, was successfully prosecuted for speeding at 139mph on a country road.

Figures released yesterday by North Yorkshire Police revealed that there had been a total of 16,055 speeding offences in the first 12 months since the force introduced the use of a mobile camera in July last year.

Selby magistrates yesterday also ordered Dobson to pay a fine of £500 along with court costs of £45 and a victim surcharge of £50.

Speaking after the case, Inspector Dave Brown, of North Yorkshire Police’s Strategic Roads Policing Group, said: “Mr Dobson has shown shocking disregard for his own safety and that of other road users. He should consider himself lucky to be only facing a driving ban and a hole in his bank balance and not something much more serious.

“Hopefully the ban will give him time to reflect on his actions and also send a clear warning to others of what faces them if they believe the law does not apply to them.

“The safety camera has proved to be a very successful tool in influencing driver behaviour and it will continue to be deployed on roads where we know speeding is an issue. The simple answer is if you don’t speed, you won’t be caught.”

Of those caught speeding, 13,054 were given the option of attending a speed awareness course as opposed to taking a fixed penalty and three points on their license; 250 have been summoned to court; 2,126 were given a conditional offer of fixed penalty. Police did not proceed with 625 cases for various reasons.

Steven Graham Smith was banned for six months after being clocked travelling at 139mph on a country road.

He became the fastest biker recorded on a mobile speed camera by North Yorkshire Police on the B1217 near the village of Saxton which is a 60mph route – travelling at more than twice the limit.

Smith, had visited a biker café on his Aprilia RSV4 before speeding back to his home in Wetherby.

The county’s 5,000-mile road network is a huge draw for bikers from across the country. However, North Yorkshire Police had to deal with 182 deaths on the county’s roads between 2001 and 2011. Two pillion passengers also died in 2010.

Mobile safety cameras were introduced in North Yorkshire in June last year.

The county had up until then been the only area in the country which had not adopted the use of either mobile or fixed-site cameras.

But senior officers were forced to admit that the problem of both speeding motorists and bikers had left them with no other option.