Boss lied to police over speeding rap; CRIME: Businessman comes clean after claiming someone else was driving.

Byline: Ross McCarthy

A BIRMINGHAM haulage boss caught out by a speed camera has appeared in court to admit perverting the course of justice.

AMC Haulage owner Anthony McNamara tried to claim someone else had been driving his 4x4 when he was clocked doing 50mph in a 40mph zone last December..

But he was rumbled because he had spoken to police officers nearby just minutes earlier, leading them to decide he must have been driving.

McNamara, 63, of Stonerwood Avenue, Yardley Wood, admitted perverting the course of justice when he appeared at Warwick Crown Court.

Judge Robert Orme fined McNamara pounds 500 and ordered him to pay pounds 263 costs and a pounds 15 surcharge.

He told him: "You are standing there because you provided a false name on a speeding matter, but the police quickly put two and two together.

"It was an expensive piece of dishonesty on your part." The court heard McNamara was clocked speeding on the A45 Coventry Road as he returned to Birmingham from an area of Warwickshire, where one of his Hall Green-based company's tipper vans had been left after being involved in an accident..

He had spoken to police dealing with the incident at the scene but claimed a man called John Casey had been driving when he was caught speeding and sent a notice of intended prosecution.

When he was arrested McNamara, who had a clean licence, said he did not know why he had done it.

Christopher Jones, defending, said McNamara was a man of good character and had admitted what he had done straight away when he was arrested..