Justice catches up with driver three years after hitting 107 mph on M6
A businessman who is £1.2 million in debt has been fined £3,000 after a motoring offence finally caught up with him more than three years after he was spotted doing 107 mph on the M6.
Parmajit Pahal thought the matter had been 'sorted out' until he stepped in to help break up a fight in Wolverhampton city centre last month.
Police called to the scene were conducting a routine interview with him when they discovered a warrant had been issued for his arrest more than three years earlier.
The 49-year-old was seen by an unmarked police car travelling at up to 107 mph on the M6 just before 8pm on August 9 2014, Mr Geoffrey Dann, prosecuting, told Wolverhampton Crown Court.
The defendant's BMW 330 coupe was heading south passed Junction 8 - the link with the M6 - and was tailed to Junction 6 - Spaghetti Junction - where the unmarked car turn on its flashing lights and siren and he stopped when he realised it was a police vehicle.
Mr Dann continued: "He was obviously speeding, driving up behind other drivers, tying to intimidate them.
"He repeatedly undertook cars over several miles and was recorded at speeds up to 107mph. He averaged almost 104mph for a mile."
Father-of-two Pahal was warned he would be reported to the Crown Prosecution Service and was summonsed for dangerous driving but did not appear to face the charge at Birmingham Magistrates' Court on October 3 2014.
It is unclear if he received the summons but he did appear 19 days later when he was fined for threatening behaviour in an unrelated case but there was no mention of the outstanding warrant.
He has also lived at the same rented address for six years without anybody calling to execute the warrant.
The defendant said he assumed the M6 incident had been 'taken care of.'
He maintained: "It is not as if I have been deliberately evading the law. There has been a break down in the system."
He had other things on his mind at the time.
He explained: "My marriage had fallen apart and I had lost my house.
"I owe £1.2million but am a self made millionaire and can do that again, given the chance."
Pahal from Birches Barn Road, Bradmore, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving.
He was banned from driving for 12 months and fined £3,000 with a month in jail in default together with £340 costs by Recorder Douglas Readings who said: "You drove atrociously."
The defendant said outside court that he had been a successful overseas property consultant, buying and selling in the UK, Florida and Dubai but the business hit the rocks, leaving him deep in debt, 'haemorrhaging £5,000-a-month' and unable to pay mortgages on his properties following the financial crash of 2008/9.
He also said he lost his £500,000 Tettenhall home.
He confessed: "I will struggle to pay the fine. At the moment I can barely pay my £500-a-month rent.
"I find it quite embarrassing that this has come up now because I have moved on with my life."
He is currently trying to conclude an Independent Voluntary Arrangement with his creditors.
