A POLLSTER was caught doing more than 100mph down the M4 – as he raced to a government away day.

Ben Page, chief executive of polling firm Ipsos MORI, was behind the wheel of a 2016-plate Jaguar F-type on the motorway near Swindon on January 12 last year when a police officer clocked the sports car doing 102mph.

In a statement read to Swindon Magistrates’ Court this afternoon, the 56-year-old said he’d been on his way to a speaking engagement at a government away day.

He added: “I realise the stupidity of speeding and its potential to harm others and myself.” Page said he’d had three decades without a blemish on his driving record.

Magistrates were told the defendant was chief executive of Ipsos MORI, a polling firm, and earned around £4,000 a month.

Page, of Cedar Mews, Lambeth, pleaded guilty by post to a single charge of speeding. He did not attend the hearing at the magistrates’ court on Monday.

The justices imposed six penalty points, fined Page £923 and ordered he pay £202 in costs and surcharge.