Don’t ban me from driving... I’ll have to hire 7 chauffeurs
Tycoon accused of speeding in Bentley says:
A MILLIONAIRE businessman tried to avoid a driving ban by claiming it was too hard to find the right chauffeur.
David Russell, 63, clocked up 24 points after his Bentley was repeatedly caught speeding.
The chief executive told magistrates he could not say whether he had been behind the wheel because his £270million property firm has a ‘fleet’. He also stressed he was often abroad on business.
Furthermore, he claimed he would suffer ‘exceptional hardship’ from a driving ban, because the last time he had served one he had been unable to find a driver willing to work long enough hours. The former carpet salesman said he had been forced to hire seven different chauffeurs in order to make early morning meetings. Manchester Magistrates’ Court heard the businessman, who founded the Property Alliance Group in 2003, was charged after he failed to respond to letters saying his £114,000 company car had been caught speeding several times.
Having failed to turn up to a trial last month, Russell was convicted in his absence of three counts of failing to produce documents to say who was driving. He was also handed 18 points on his licence, on top of six relating to other speeding offences in 2017 and 2018.
Russell, who has a £3million home in Wilmslow, Cheshire, insisted he had no knowledge of the trial because his housekeeper dealt with all his letters and forwarded them onto his work. ‘ My PA or a fellow director would or should have gone along,’ he said. ‘I wasn’t properly informed that I had to attend. I thought it was a company thing – not an individual thing.’
Russell also said a ban would make it ‘exceptionally difficult’ for him to work. ‘I was disqualified 14 to 15 years ago but it was virtually impossible to get chauffeurs to come and pick me up at half five, six in the morning,’ he told the court.
‘I must have gone through five, six or seven chauffeurs – they didn’t want to do the time and meetings would run over.
‘I would need to pull out of several contracts and won’t be able to get around.
‘We’ve also got Brexit, a new Prime Minister and everyone’s anticipating the property market would drop off. I can try to restructure my hours but business would suffer and I would start to think of laying off staff.’
Magistrates rejected his pleas and banned him on Monday from driving for six months. Russell was also fined £2,304 and warned he could face up to six months in jail if he was caught driving.
‘Pick me up at half five’