A visitor to the Isle of Man TT who reached speeds of nearly 90mph before crashing after failing to stop for police has been fined £8,000.

Witnesses were left horrified by the standard of French national Florian Camelle Roux’s riding as he sped past lines of traffic through Glen Helen and on towards Kirk Michael.

One police officer followed Roux, 31, and saw him overtake several cars on his BMW S1000 as he reached almost 90mph on May 26 this year.

He was stopped at Kirk Michael but then he turned round and sped off towards Ballaugh

Roux, who had been bailed back to his home in France, returned to the island on Tuesday for sentence at the Court of General Gaol Delivery with a French interpreter.

He previously pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and failing to stop for police.

Roux was staying at Douglas Rugby Club campsite at the time of the offences.

Prosecuting advocate Sara-Jayne Dodge told the court that Roux was riding his bike at Glen Helen on May 26, at around 5.20pm.

A police officer on an unmarked bike was following him and radioed ahead to another officer, due to concern over Roux’s speed and overtaking manoeuvres.

On the Cronk-y-Voddy straight, Roux overtook six to seven cars with the police officer reaching 86mph as he tried to keep up.

An officer on a marked police motorcycle then stopped the defendant at Station Road in Kirk Michael.

However, Roux then turned his bike around and rode off. The officer on the unmarked bike tried to block him. He stopped but then tried to ride around the officer’s bike and collided with it as he rode off.

Roux narrowly avoided an elderly couple on a pedestrian crossing.

Another witness said: ‘He was going at an unbelievable speed, almost 100mph. If the couple had crossed there was no way he could stop.

‘The bike raced through the village like nothing I have seen before. It was a ridiculously dangerous speed. He absolutely put his and other people’s lives in danger.’

Roux’s luck would run out a short time later when his bike clipped the wing mirror of one van before he crashed into the back of another.

Thankfully, no one was seriously injured but both vans suffered damage and Roux’s motorcycle was a write-off.

Roux failed a roadside breathalyser test, but a blood sample later found he was under the legal limit.

Defence advocate Helen Lobb previously said her client had no previous convictions or points on his licence.

She said he believed the officer on the unmarked bike was a hijacker and he did not understand what police wanted.

Having read a social enquiry report and positive references, Deemster Graeme Cook believed there was good reason to suspend a prison sentence but said such punishment would be ‘pointless and inappropriate’ as Roux would be in France and the subject of a five-year exclusion order.

Instead, he fined Roux £8,000 for dangerous driving with no separate penalty for failing to stop.

He was also ordered to pay £400 compensation for the damage to the police motorcycle and £125 costs. He was also disqualified from driving in the island for two years.