IMPATIENT businessman Martin Whale, 59, was in such a rush to get to his office on the former Red Arrows airbase that he rode his motorbike across the runway - just as a plane was landing!

The management consultant zoomed past traffic waiting at red traffic lights and crossed the runway as the two-seater aircraft was approaching for touchdown.

Whale, of Okus Rd, Swindon, who ran his Devonair Aviation Services business from a hangar on the former RAF Kemble base near Cirencester, Glos, denied he was the rider involved in the potentially dangerous incident.

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 Mr Whale, who felt they had deliberately restricted access to his hangar.

Peter Hill, a flight information services officer, told the appeal 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 "observed a white motorcycle crossing the runway. It overtook three or four parked cars".

The bike continued along an old aircraft taxi-way now used as a road and disappeared from view, he said.

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

They went up the taxi way and along the perimeter road and spotted nothing until they discovered a motorbike parked near the main doors of a hangar, he said.

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

Mr Apps said he told the man that the control tower had seen him jump the lights.

"He became quite abrupt and said he wouldn't give me any details. He was quite stand-offish," added Mr Apps, who said he then left.

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

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

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

But Mr Whale, in evidence, said the officer'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 agreed that he may well have said the operations were poorly run and the lights were turned to red too soon but denied that he would have indicated he rode through the traffic lights.

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.

"Soon after arrival, I opened the door and the motorbike was there and I drove outside the hangar and parked it in the position Mr Hill recollects," he said, denying he used it again that day.

Outlining the background to the incident, Mr Whale said his business had taken the hangar on a long lease from the M.O.D in 1996.

But a competition to buy the airfield between him and owner Ronan Harvey turned nasty, he said, and when Mr Harvey took over the site, he began to "harrass our business operations in the hangar", said Mr Whale.

He said just before the incident in question, Mr Harvey's staff had threatened his workers by saying that the red lights would be "put on permanently".

After retiring to consider the appeal, Recorder Malcolm Gibney returned to say that prior to his not guilty plea Mr Whale had given no indication that his defence was that he was not the person riding the motorcycle.

"The core issues in this case are the credibility of the witnesses," he said, adding that the bench found them to be honest and credible.

Recorder Gibney said the bench accepted that Mr Whale's tenancy over the years had not been the easiest and there had been a legitimate dispute.

"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."

He added: "We feel the Crown has proved its case."

After hearing that Mr Whale was fined £1,500 by magistrates and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £5,000, the court reduced the fine to £1,000 - but added the costs of the appeal - £1,524.18 - making a total of £7,524.18 that he will have to pay.