A professional limousine driver has been fined and his licence suspended for six months for speeding 55km/h over the limit on Bussell Highway.
Federico Frank Coppola, 37, appeared in Mandurah Magistrates Court on January 16 and pleaded guilty to one charge of reckless driving.
Police prosecutor Sgt Mark Cole told the court Coppola was driving a Mercedes-Benz south on Bussell Highway in Yalyalup near Busselton at an alleged speed of 125km/h in a 70km/h zone about 7pm on July 2.
Defence lawyer Vesna Amidzic told the court Coppola was an employee of a limousine hire company and was on a weekend away with a friend when the incident happened.
She said her client had experienced “personal issues and stressors” in the years before the incident.
Ms Amidzic told the court Coppola “wasn’t as careful as he ought to have been” and the offence had “caused personal embarrassment”.
Magistrate Leanne Atkins said Coppola’s behaviour “beggars belief” and questioned why he did not use cruise control.
“You were in a Mercedes,” she said.
“Mercedes have cruise control, you could have used that.”
She fined him $1400 and suspended his drivers licence for six months.