A 21-year-old restricted driver has been banned from the road for three months and fined £300 after being detected at 93mph on the M2 motorway.

Eunan McCloskey, an apprentice electrician of O'Cahan Place in Dungiven, was driving on the motorway at Rathbeg near Antrim town on the evening of Sunday, April 12 this year. As an R driver he was subject to a 45mph maximum speed limit.

At Antrim Magistrates' Court, sitting in Ballymena, a defence solicitor acknowledged that the speed was significant. The solicitor told the court that McCloskey had been returning from a car show and was due to catch an early flight the next morning for work in England.

Deputy District Judge Mark Hamill said the speed was significant for any driver. He told the defendant he was lucky he had not hurt anybody during the incident.

Noting that the defendant was accompanied in the public gallery by his father, Judge Hamill remarked that he was sure the father was appalled by the driving.

McCloskey pleaded guilty. Judge Hamill said the disqualification should have been at least six months but the guilty plea reduced the ban to three months. The £300 fine was also imposed.