CHURCH minister the Rev Rico Tice begged magistrates to disqualify him for speeding to set an example to his flock but he escaped a ban.

Tice, an associate minister at All Souls Church, in Langham Place, London, was caught speeding on the M4 in Wiltshire. His VW Polo was caught on a speed camera travelling at 65mph in a section which had a temporary speed limit of 50mph.

He pleaded guilty to speeding when he appeared at Kennet Magistrates Court in Devizes on Tuesday, his 37th birthday. The court heard he was travelling back to his home in Cleveland Street, London, from Bristol on November 14 where he had been preaching at a Billy Graham meeting.

Tice hired QC Henry Hargreaves to make his plea to magistrates.

Mr Hargreaves told the court: "He wants to be an example to the people he preaches. to Just because he wears a dog collar he is not above the law."

Mr Hargreaves told the court his client had six penalty points on his licence from two separate speeding offences, both occurring on roads where there were temporary speed restrictions.

Tice was offered the chance to pay a fixed penalty notice of £60 and have three points put on his driving licence but rejected it in order to go to court.

Although he was not facing an automatic driving ban, he urged the magistrates to ban him from driving for a short period. Mr Hargreaves said there was no ulterior motive for his client asking for a driving ban.

He said: "There is no other motoring offence pending. There is nothing sinister about this, he just feels he should not be treated any better than other people. He is asking for a short period of disqualification.

"This is his third speeding offence and they have all occurred in temporary speed limits. On the last occasion he said he failed to notice the temporary speed limit sign and said there was very little road works at the time."

Mr Hargreaves said Tice regularly preaches to 3,000 people on a Sunday at All Souls Church, which is known as the BBC church as it is near to the BBC offices in Portland Place.

He said Tice, who is due to be married later this year, also preaches all over the world and had recently returned from speaking at missions in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.

After adjourning to consider sentence magistrate Stephen Brazier told Tice they were not going to ban him. He was fined £60, ordered to pay £35 costs and three penalty points.