Speeding Skoda driver clocked at 97mph on 40mph stretch of A45 in Chowns Mill roadworks

A driver who whizzed through a 40mph speed limit at a nearly 100mph has been banned for three months.

Chas Lawrence Lancaster, aged 37, pleaded guilty after mobile speed cameras clocked a Skoda Octavia VRS at an eye-watering 97mph on the A45, near the Chowns Mill roadworks, in November last year.

Lancaster, of Cory Gardens, Harpole, ignored a temporary 40mph westbound on the stretch from Stanwick in force to protect workers while the £24 million project is going on to build a new roundabout at the junction with the A6.

Wellingborough magistrates also fined Lancaster £423 at a hearing on Friday (November 5) and ordered him to pay another £132 in prosecution costs and a surcharge to fund victim services.

Speed camera vans visit more than 170 locations around the county on a regular basis watching out for drivers speeding, not wearing a seatbelt or using a mobile phone or other devices while behind the wheel.

Those offences make up three quarters of the so-called Fatal Four — drink or drug driving is the other — which contribute most to deaths and serious injuries on the county roads.

Safer Roads Operations Manager, Matt O’Connell, said: “It’s always disappointing, despite all the campaigns and warnings about speeding, that so many drivers still choose to drive at excess or inappropriate speeds.

"We would urge motorists to think about their actions and drive at a speed suitable for the weather conditions and within the posted limit. We cannot be any clearer: Speeding KILLS.

“It is one of the four biggest causation factors in collisions and driving even just a few miles per hour over the speed limit can have extreme consequences, leaving families devastated by the loss of loved ones."