The PPS has said it does not have grounds for challenging the sentence handed down to a serious speeding offender.

Under the law, only certain cases qualify for review under the rules on “unduly lenient” sentences, and the PPS said there is an “insufficient basis” for doing so here.

It was commenting after the News Letter reported this week that Larne man Andrew Robert Steele (30) had been banned from driving for one year after being caught doing 132mph on the new A8 outside the town.

He was also fined £400, after being convicted of speeding and dangerous driving (he admitted the former but disputed the latter, and is appealing the conviction).

placeholder image — A 'reduce speed now' sign on the A8 near Larne

It was the second time Steele had been caught speeding; he was previously clocked at 100mph.

His sentence (handed down at at Antrim Magistrates' Court, sitting in Ballymena, on Tuesday) was described as “scandalous” by Davy Jackson, the chairman of Road Safe NI Charity.

However, because it was prosecuted through the lower-level magistrates’ court, not the higher-level Crown court, it does not qualify for review as potentially unduly lenient.

Dangerous driving brings a potential six month jail term in a magistrates’ court plus a fine of £5,000, or five years in jail in a Crown court.

A PPS spokesperson said: “While sentencing is a matter for the judiciary, the Director of Public Prosecutions does have the power to refer particular sentences to the Court of Appeal on the grounds that they may be unduly lenient.

"An unduly lenient sentence is one that falls outside the range of sentences that a judge, taking into consideration all relevant factors and having regard to sentencing guidance, could reasonably consider appropriate.

“In this case there isn’t a sufficient legal basis to refer the sentence to the Court of Appeal for consideration as it was prosecuted in the Magistrates Court.”