Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure has escaped a driving ban after he was caught speeding at 101mph on a motorway in a turbo-charged Porsche.

The 32-year-old Ivory Coast international was spotted speeding a northbound stretch of the M6 near Keele services.

He had been expected to turn up for what was due to be his trial at Burton Magistrates Court in Staffordshire today, having denied driving at up to 123mph on the same stretch of motorway just a few minutes later at a previous hearing.

But that charge was dropped by prosecutors - so he was instead represented in court by his solicitor Gwyn Lewis who told magistrates the footballer "apologised for his behaviour".

Magistrates handed Toure, who earns a reported £220,000-a-week from the Premier League side, a £1,665 fine and six penalty points for speeding on May 20.

He also ordered him to pay £85 costs, a £120 victim surcharge and a criminal court charge of £150.

Mr Lewis, in mitigation, said: "The car comes from Germany, has a German registration, rather than a normal registration and unfortunately for my client it was a vehicle which had I think not got the correct speedometer - it was showing kilometres [per hour] in terms of miles.

"That isn't other than a point of interest. He knew he was going too fast."

Toure, from Wilmslow, Cheshire, had already accepted breaking the 70mph speed limit on a previous occasion.

Lesley Gilman, chairman of the bench, sentencing, said: "We've thought carefully about this.

"We've heard the gentleman has a clean licence and we are not going to disqualify him today but will impose six penalty points on his licence."

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