Ferrari driver who reached 140mph on M1 handed 12-month driving ban
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Police reached speeds of up to 140mph trying to keep up with a driver of a Ferrari, a court was told today.
A defence solicitor told Craigavon Magistrates’ Court that his Co Fermanagh client had been more concerned about his dying mother in hospital than the rules of the road.
Enniskillen man Niall McNulty was hit with a 12-month road ban for driving dangerously.
The court heard that police patrolling the M12 in Portadown saw a red Ferrari join the motorway in an “abrupt manoeuvre, cutting in front of preceding vehicles”.
A prosecutor said the driver pulled into lane two “before speeding up significantly” and the police decided to follow.
The Ferrari moved onto the M1, “where the driver continued to accelerate”, and at times the unmarked police car reached speeds up to 140 mph to keep up, eventually pulling the Ferrari over.
Standing at the back of the court, McNulty (46), from Sligo Road in Enniskillen, was charged with both speeding and dangerous driving, but the Public Prosecution Service withdrew the excess speed charge after McNulty admitted dangerous driving.
Defence counsel Damien Halleron revealed that McNulty had received a phone call telling him that he needed to get to the hospital in Enniskillen where his mother lay seriously ill.
He further revealed that she sadly passed away a few days later, saying that, by McNulty’s manner of driving, “‘his only concern was for his mother’s health rather than the rules of the road.”
Having heard that McNulty’s father is an undertaker, District Judge Francis Rafferty described the speed as “outrageous”.
He told the defendant he “could have created multiple clients for [his] father”.
In addition to a 12-month driving ban, McNulty was fined £600.