AN impatient businessman has been fined thousands of pounds after riding his motorbike across a runway just as a plane was landing.

Martin Whale zoomed past traffic and went through a red light as he made his way to his office on the former RAF Kemble airbase near Cirencester.

But the 59-year-old, of Okus Road, Swindon, denied he was the rider.

But his appeal against conviction for breaching air regulation rules at the now privately-run airfield and business park was dismissed and he was ordered to pay more than £7,500 in fines and costs.

Gloucester Crown Court, sitting at Cirencester, heard there had been a long history of animosity between the airfield owners and Whale.

Whale said the site owners had deliberately restricted access to his hangar.

Peter Hill, a flight information services officer, told the appeal that he was on duty on Sunday, November 27, 2005, in the control tower.

He said he looked up at the point when an aircraft was landing at around 1pm and saw a white motorcycle crossing the runway.

He said it overtook three or four parked cars. The bike continued along an old aircraft taxiway now used as a road and disappeared from view, he said.

David Apps, senior airport fire officer, said that the control room contacted his crew and requested they try to find a white motorcycle and rider on the north side of the airfield.

He told the court he went in to a hanger to find a man in motorcycle leathers who confirmed he had been riding the bike.

PC Craig McCorquodale said that he was later escorted by Mr Apps to the hangar so that he could identify the rider of the bike. There, he pointed out a large Honda PanEuropean motorcycle.

After he established that Whale was the owner, Whale told PC McCorquodale the operations at Kemble were poorly run and "basically that they had changed the lights to red because they knew he was coming."

Whale also argued that he had a free right of passage, which allowed him to cross the runway.

But Whale, in evidence, said the policeman's recollections were not true and said: "I have never admitted being on that motorcycle going through those lights because I wasn't there."

He said he had arrived at the hangar at 11am by car with the intention of taking his bike out for a ride in the afternoon.

After retiring to consider the appeal, Recorder Malcolm Gibney said: "On the Sunday in question Mr Whale was in fact the rider of the motorcycle. He was frustrated in what he took to be an unnecessary long delay. He perceived there to be no imminent danger.

"We feel the Crown has proved its case," he added.

Whale was earlier fined £500 and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £5,000, and £1,524 for the cost of the appeal.