Deaf driver with glass eye banned
 
Speedometer
The pensioner said he confused the rev counter with the speedometer
A deaf 83-year-old motorist with a glass eye has been banned from driving for 45 days after he was caught speeding on the A9 in his new car.

Maurice Hollyfield was doing 88mph while towing a trailer on a single carriageway with a 50mph limit.

Perth Sheriff Court heard it was the second time in less than a year that the pensioner had been caught speeding.

Hollyfield, from Milton Keynes, had told the court he had been reading the rev counter instead of the speedometer.

As well as the ban, the retired British Aerospace inspector was given a £300 fine for the offence on the A9 at Waterloo, in Perthshire, on 4 April last year.

'Loud music'

Sheriff Lindsay Foulis said: "By any stretch of the imagination he is going at a fair lick and it's not even a dual carriageway, it's a single carriageway.

"He has a previous conviction for speeding in July 2006, which was nine months prior to this.

"He should know the difference between 50, 60 and 88mph. He would see the trees flying past at a great rate."

The court was told that Hollyfield had only ever passed a very basic test while driving a lorry in the Army nearly 70 years ago.

Solicitor David Holmes, defending, said: "He said the reason for his driving was that he was listening to loud music on his cassette player because of his deafness.

"It was a new car and the instrument panel was very different. He kept glancing at what he thought was the speedometer, but it wasn't."

Mr Holmes added: "He is not without a sense of humour. He told me he really likes the car, now that he knows where the instrument panel is."