A DRUG driver from Taunton has been banned from getting behind the wheel for 32 months after being clocked at 122mph on the M5 in Somerset.

Robert James White, 30, was stopped by police near Junction 23 (Bridgwater) as he was travelling southbound on March 17 this year.

He was travelling back from Wales after getting a haircut, despite a second lockdown being in place in England at the time.

White admitted the charges at a previous hearing and was sentenced at Taunton Deane Magistrates’ Court last Thursday (December 2).

In addition to the disqualification, he was fined £120 and ordered to pay £85 court costs and a £34 victim surcharge.

At the time of the incident, he was given a fixed penalty notice for the breach of Covid regulations.

PC Owen Davies, of Avon and Somerset Police's Roads Policing Unit, said: “White’s driving on that day was reckless in the extreme.

"Not only was he driving at 122mph in a 70mph zone, but he was also under the influence of drugs at the time.

"If he’d been involved in a collision while driving at that speed, it would have resulted in catastrophic consequences.

“At the time of the offence, a second national lockdown to prevent the spread of Covid-19 was in place in England, with people urged to stay at home – all this makes his actions even more reprehensible.”