A SOUTHAMPTON carpenter was caught speeding at 120mph on a Hampshire motorway in a 13-year-old Fiat.

Police clocked Stephen Foot’s five-door Croma as it flashed past their unmarked vehicle travelling at 50mph over the M3’s 70mph speed limit.

Foot later admitted speeding, but said he was doing so in order to test for a possible fault in his car’s turbocharger.

Now the 40-year-old has been given a six week driving ban and a £422 fine.

During Foot’s sentencing at Southampton Magistrates’ Court on Monday, the court heard how Foot was driving his Fiat on the M3 near Winchester on June 26 last year when he was spotted by officers in an unmarked police car.

Prosecutor Julie Macey said police saw the car whiz by at a speed one experienced trafficofficer estimated to be in the region of 130mph.

Police activated their sirens and followed the vehicle, clocking it travelling at a speed of 120mph.

Mitigating, Michael McGhee said Foot’s driving was “absolutely disgraceful” and “extremely dangerous” but that his client was “extremely ashamed”.

He said: “It was a lapse in judgement. He was road testing a potentially defective turbocharger in his car.”

Mr McGhee added that Foot wanted to test for the possible fault before he took the vehicle on a family holiday to France.

He urged magistrates to limit the length of any potential driving ban handed to Foot, due to the impact it would have on his work as a carpenter and joiner.

Foot, of Coxford Road, Southampton, pleaded guilty to one count of speeding and was given a 42 day driving ban and fined £422.

He was also ordered to pay court costs of £85 and a victim surcharge of £42.

Commenting on the case, a spokesperson motoring association, The AA, said: "“Tearing down the motorway at 120 mph takes the chance of survival in a crash to near zero.

"Worse still, the victims are likely to involve innocent people who need the protection of the law."