High-profile duo guilty of careless driving

A MARQUIS and a knight have been found guilty of driving carelessly on the A75 Gretna – Stranraer Euro-route.

The Marquis of Headfort Thomas Taylour, 53, was fined £600 and banned from driving for six months. Sir Richard Dashwood, 61, was fined £600 with eight penalty points on his licence after a three-hour trial at Kirkcudbright Sheriff Court.

The pair had been accused of driving dangerously and at speeds of up to 112mph on the Gatehouse of Fleet bypass last November last year where the road has a 60mph limit.

But Sheriff Kenneth Robb found that both had been guilty of careless driving at speeds in excess of 60mph and up to 90mph on 13 November last year.

Sir Richard, a stockbroker, of Sandford St Martin, Oxfordshire, and Taylour, a consultant to an estate agency, of Cadogan Street, London, had been on their way to a dinner at Portpatrick when traffic officers claimed they had “clocked” them at 112mph on the bypass.