A POWYS motorist has received a lesser punishment for speeding after attending court.

Laura McDonough, 32, was initially fined more than £600 for speeding at 81 miles per hour on the Newtown bypass, where the speed limit is 60mph, on October 22 last year.

McDonough appeared at Welshpool Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, June 18, after she’d received a hefty fine for the offence when convicted in her absence in Llanelli, a hearing she said she knew nothing about.

McDonough, of Nursery Cottage, Red Lane, Welshpool, admitted speeding at last week’s hearing.

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She was driving a BMW X6 on the day and had received an overall fine of £696. The court received an email from the defendant saying she’d been pulled over by a police officer but had known nothing about the original hearing, but would have pleaded guilty had she been notified.

Acting in her own defence, she said: “I should have been paying more attention, there is no excuse.

“I was trying to give myself distance between me and another driver in front who was driving quite erratically, so I went into the faster lane. It’s a lesson learned.”

McDonough was fined £100 and had three points placed on her licence.