Car is clocked on Puddletown bypass travelling at 152 mph

The hand-held speed detector clocked a Weymouth yacht skipper doing more than twice the speed limit along the A35 Puddletown bypass with his father in the passenger seat.

The driver of the BMW M5 was yacht captain Brendan John Matthews, of Barnhaven Close, Wyke Road, Weymouth.

In his defence an expert had reported there could be a margin of error with the speed detection device and the court heard that Matthews would admit driving at up to 140 mph.

Weymouth magistrates imposed an 18-week prison sentence suspended for 18 months and told Matthews he would have to do 250 hours of unpaid work and pay prosecution costs of £200.

He has also been given a two-year driving disqualification and will have to take an extended test to get a full licence back.

The 28-year-old skippers luxury charter yachts around the Mediterranean.

He had appeared before the magistrates’ court in Blandford on March 11 last year and denied an allegation that he was driving dangerously on February 17 that year.

When the case came for trial before the magistrates’ court in Weymouth he changed his plea to guilty.

Elizabeth Valera, prosecuting, told the court that a police officer had been using a hand-held speed detection device when she checked the BMW travelling east towards Bere Regis at 11.32am.

She said: “A reading of 152 mph is taken from that device.”

She said the officers looked at each other in disbelief when they saw the reading.

She told the court: “The crown in this case say that Mr Matthews’ driving fell far below that expected of a competent and careful driver and, indeed, that it would be obvious to a competent and careful driver that his driving was dangerous.”

She said: “Of course 152 mph is over double what the speed limit is and that is why the crown says it is dangerous.”

In interview with officers Matthews had made the point that his car was in good condition.

She told magistrates that it had been a dry and bright day, that traffic at that point on the road had been light and that Matthews' father had been the front-seat passenger in the car.

The court watched a short video taken from the marked police car when it followed the BMW.

Simeon Evans, defending, said: “Mr Matthews will accept that he was driving grossly in excess of the speed limit – probably very nearly double, or at double the speed limit.

“Whatever the speed was it is not accepted that it was 152mph.”

He said: “The irony you have is of a man in an extremely responsible job, he is responsible for machinery worth millions of pounds and the people on them, and he has acted irresponsibly.”

It had been a very short burst of speed and Matthews had slowed down to the speed limit before he realised police were following his car, which he had now sold.

He told the court Matthews was on call to go out to yacht charters at short notice and was a hard-working young man with a very successful career.

• The record for the fastest driver ever caught in a speed trap was Tim Brady, who was jailed for ten weeks in 2007 after admitting driving a £98,000 Porsche at 172mph.