101mph Yaya Toure spared driving ban after saying Porsche had 'wrong speedo'

Burton Magistrates Court heard that the Porsche, from Germany, "unfortuanately" for Toure, had the wrong speedometer, as it was in kilometres not miles.

Toure, 32, from Wilmslow, Cheshire, was caught driving at excessive speed down the M6 near Keele services on May 20. 

The Ivory Coast international midfielder had been expected to be tried for a more serious charge of speeding at 123mph, but that was dropped by prosecutors.

Gwyn Lewis, defending, said after outlining Toure's remorse: "The car comes from Germany, has a German registration, rather than a normal registration and unfortunately for my client it was a vehicle which had I think not got the correct speedometer – it was showing kilometres (per hour) in terms of miles.

"That isn't other than a point of interest. He knew he was going too fast."

Toure's total court bill is more than £2,000, after costs of £355 were added on.

The court was told that Toure's speeding put him on the cusp of disqualification, but his clean licence persuaded magistrates to impose six penalty points.

Mr Lewis said Toure had been recorded speeding by an unmarked police car between junction 15 and junction 16 of the motorway at about 8.30pm and "accepted responsibility for it straight away".

He added: "Can I say there is, in any system, a degree of human error that can take place and it could have been up to 3mph less, or possibly more, but it's around or about 100mph and we don't dispute that."

On the fine the magistrates could levy on Toure, Mr Lewis explained: "You may or may not know he's a professional footballer and in that regard he's well paid in what he does.

"I haven't filled in a means form, but what you can say is there's sufficient means to pay even at the maximum level of the fine."

He concluded by saying: "May I take this opportunity, as my client has directed me, to apologise for his behaviour.

"He shouldn't have driven this fast.

"It's out of character for him, he was involved in a short degree of speeding and can I ask for him to be dealt with as anybody else would be: with a fine and six points."

Lesley Gilman, chairman of the bench, said: "We've thought carefully about this.

"We've heard the gentleman has a clean licence and we are not going to disqualify him today but will impose six penalty points on his licence."

(dailystar.co.uk)