AN ASSET manager for Lloyds Bank has narrowly avoided a driving ban after being caught driving at 66mph in a 30mph zone.

Richard Hampson, 41, of Clayton Hall Road, Cross Hills was caught by a speed camera doing more than double the speed limit in Moor End Road in Halifax on his way back from work at 8.20pm on April 22.

He already had three points on his licence, and faced a driving ban because of the speed he was travelling.

Hampson admitted the speeding offence when he appeared at Bradford and Keighley Magistrates' Court today, but the court heard it was a "lapse in concentration" and that the road was quiet at the time.

Magistrates were told that he worked in Halifax from 7am to 8pm on Monday to Thursdays, and the drive from his home to Halifax was 50 minutes. If he was banned from driving he faced an hour and a half commute by public transport and a two mile walk to his "remote home".

Magistrates endorsed Hampson's licence with a further six penalty points and ordered him to pay a £660 fine, £85 costs, a £66 surcharge and a criminal court charge of £150.