Judge tells off-duty police officer who hit speed of 101mph: 'You should know better than anybody that speed kills'
A judge handed down a driving ban to a police officer caught doing 101mph on the way home from work and said the defendant "should know better than anybody else that speed kills".
Jonathan Armstrong (26), was detected at 1.20am on June 19 this year at Rathbeg on the M2 motorway.
At Ballymena Magistrates Court the defendant admitted a charge of exceeding a 70mph speed limit.
The defendant told the court he is a police officer and had finished work at 1am on June 19.
Deputy District Judge Austin Kennedy told him he "should know better" and the defendant replied: "I should."
The defendant said the incident was "at the height of" riots in parts of Northern Ireland and his "shifts were all over the place".
He was in the middle of moving house and had "a lot on my mind and I just wanted to get home as quick as I could".
He said he had passed a lorry and "thought I would put the foot down a little bit" but "didn't realise what speed I had hit until the police officer stopped me and showed me on the radar gun".
He added: "Straight away I held my hands up, I knew I had taken a chance."
Judge Kennedy told the defendant: "Well you know better than anybody else that speed kills. There are too many deaths in this jurisdiction for speeding offences.
"I am not sure if you have detected people for speeding in the past but driving at 100mph on any occasion is quite simply appalling."
The defendant was banned from driving for three months and was fined £750.
He was given bail for appeal of the sentence in the sum of £500 and he is allowed to drive in the meantime.