...now that's a quick wit

Patrick Kielty has revealed he once committed the worst speeding offence in Northern Ireland, being clocked at 132mph.

The comedian was caught in an Alfa Romeo GTV on a road in Belfast in the 1990s, he told the podcast Fuelling Around.

He said: ‘I ended up getting caught doing the highest recorded speed on a Northern Ireland road which, at that stage, was 132(mph) I think. This has to be 25 years ago. We’re still kind of talking pre-ceasefire Northern Ireland.’

Kielty suggested the times meant the courts had more pressing issues to deal with than speeding, so when he bought a new car he decided to put it through its paces.

‘It was a lovely summer’s evening. It was about eight o’clock, there just wasn’t a car on the motorway,’ he explained Coming out of Belfast I just eased round this corner and there was nothing there.’

‘I had a straight in front of me and I just kept putting my foot down. I didn’t really know how fast the car was and I suddenly looked and just went "wow, wow".

‘There was a car behind me and I’m thinking, "What’s he in? He must want a race".  Turns out that was an unmarked police car.

‘It was a hefty, hefty fine…. lesson learned lads, a lesson learned," he said.

Perhaps not entirely, though, as the comic was clocked at 101mph on the A75 in Dumfries and Galloway, landing him with a £1,200 fine and  six penalty points 

Published: 15 Jul 2022