A disqualified Mount Maunganui driver is facing charges after his pregnant passenger faked labour pains to get him off a speeding ticket.
Police stopped the Honda Civic after clocking it at more than 146km/h along State Highway 29 on the Kaimai Range in Tauranga on Monday morning.
Police found the woman passenger with her feet on the dashboard apparently about to give birth, the Bay of Plenty Times reported.
Part of the highway was cordoned off as an ambulance was called to take her to Tauranga Hospital.
But police suspected they had been had when the woman discharged herself and fled to a waiting car, which sped off through red traffic lights.
The 23-year-old driver will now face dangerous driving-related charges.
Acting Senior Sergeant Mark Holmes, of the Western Bay of Plenty road policing unit, said it was "disappointing that someone would use their condition like that to their advantage".
"I think she's tried using her pregnancy to put a smokescreen to give some justification for the driver's actions," he said.
The woman was seven-and-a-half months pregnant.
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