A SAINTS star who was this week given a ‘UK record speeding fine’ of £96,000 has now had it reduced to just £2,000 - because the court made a mistake.

On Monday Southampton Football Club midfielder Mario Lemina was handed 18 points after his rare £50,000 Mercedes was caught breaking the speed limit three times.

Lemina, who already had 21 points on his licence, was also ordered to pay an astonishing £96,425 - the biggest fine ever given for a motoring offence in the UK.

However, the court which fined him the huge sum has dramatically backtracked after its error and now reduced it by a huge £94,124.

Lemina, 25, admitted three counts of failing to identify the driver of a car after it was heard his brother and cousin were visiting and could have been behind the wheel of his 370bhp Mercedes-AMG 4matic yellow night edition.

Three charges of speeding - driving at 95mph on a dual carriageway and twice driving at 60mph in a temporary 40mph speed limit - were dropped.

Now, days after he was fined at Aldershot Magistrates’ Court, it has emerged he was sentenced under the guidelines for the wrong charge.

It’s understood he was fined as per the the guidelines for speeding offences rather than the guidelines for failing to identify the driver of a car, for which there is a defined limit.

Since April 2017, those caught driving at excessive speeds can be being fined up to 150 per cent of their weekly income.

The Gabonese footballer must now pay only £2,301 - just seven per cent of his £32,272 weekly wage.

The court’s blunder also means his claim to hold the record for the UK’s biggest motoring fine is no longer valid and falls back to TV presenter Ant McPartlin, who was was fined £86,000 for drink driving in April.

Aldershot Magistrates Court heard the former Juventus player, who cost Southampton a record £18.1m last year, had family visiting throughout the time of the offences and could not say for certain who was driving the vehicle.

Lemina failed to respond to letters sent to him by Hampshire Constabulary asking him to identify the driver of his £50,000 Mercedes.

The footballer, who lives in the village of Ashley Heath, near Ringwood, did not appear in court himself, instead relying on his lawyer, Cliff Morris, to enter his pleas.