LONDON

A former top traffic policeman has been banned from driving after pleading guilty on Wednesday for speeding.

Meredydd Hughes, the Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police and until recently the Association of Chief Police Officers' (ACPO) lead on road policing, admitted driving at 90 mph in a 60 mph zone while on a family holiday.

He was banned from driving for 42 days and fined 350 pounds after a hearing, which he did not attend, at Wrexham magistrates court in north Wales.

"He doesn't seek to make any excuse about this matter. He totally accepts that the police have a duty to do," his solicitor Huw Edwards told the court, according to the BBC.

"He is no exception and he accepts that he must be punished for the offence."

South Yorkshire Police issued a statement backing Hughes saying the force would "continue to focus under the leadership of the chief constable on the issues that concern the people of South Yorkshire".

But motorist groups were unimpressed.

"Mr Hughes's hypocrisy is absolutely breathtaking," said Paul Smith, founder of safespeed.co.uk a group that campaigns for speed enforcement cameras to be scrapped.

"He has been promoting speed enforcement as a means of improving road safety, but clearly did not believe that his safety was compromised by speeding."

Hughes appeared in a DVD titled "How to avoid speeding fines and points legally" in which he backed the use of cameras and firm action against speeding motorists.

In a clip made available by the DVD's producers, Hughes says: "Speed limits in a democracy are set for a purpose and we are expected to abide by the law. You can't pick and choose which laws you want to abide by."