THAT’S RICH!
Duke’s daughter (who grew up in a castle) pleads poverty and gets £50 off speeding fine – then wears £1,500 dress to exclusive party!
WEARING a £1,500 designer dress and Jimmy Choo heels at an exclusive bar in Mayfair, it is hard to believe Lady Eliza Manners suffers any ‘financial hardship’.
Surprisingly, though, when the daughter of the Duke of Rutland was faced with a £100 speeding fine this month she made a plea of poverty.
The socialite, 24, who gave her home address as a luxury £700,000 apartment in upmarket Notting Hill, west London, admitted the motoring offence but claimed she would suffer ‘cash-flow problems’ if forced to pay the fine.
However, her solvency worries seemed less of an issue on Wednesday when she stepped out in a knitted Balmain dress paired with £750 designer shoes to enjoy an exclusive party at Harry’s Bar in Mayfair with her mother, the Duchess of Rutland, and sisters.
A quick look at her social media posts shows the youngest daughter of the 11th duke enjoying a luxury lifestyle, complete with boats, five-star hotels and designer shopping trips. Superficially at least, on the basis of her social media lifestyle, she appears to have access to money.
But after pleading guilty to speeding, her fine was cut to £50.
The former model admitted driving her Audi A1 at 47mph in a 40mph zone of the M4 in Brentford, west London, in March.
On October 4, Lavender Hill Magistrates’ Court in south-west London considered her plea for leniency, which was submitted online using an email account linked to her family home, Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire.
Lady Eliza stated that despite not having any living expenses: ‘Paying a fine would cause me financial problems… because it would cause me cash-flow issues.’
Days after she made the plea the socialite posted selfies of herself wearing a designer jacket at one of the world’s most famous hotels, Claridges in Mayfair, for her 13,900 Instagram followers to see.
Two weeks before her conviction she posted pictures from a shopping trip to Milan in which she boasted of finding a number of vintage Yves Saint Laurent pieces.
This month she also described having had her ‘best holiday’ when she joined the Marquess of Blandford, heir to the Duke of Blenheim, for his 29th birthday and posted a picture showing her sunbathing on a boat off Mykonos, Greece.
The minimum fine for speeding
‘It would cause me cash-flow issues’
is £100. Courts can impose less in exceptional cases. Lady Eliza, whose circus-themed 18th birthday party featured in Tatler magazine, pleaded poverty and entered a guilty plea online.
The socialite, who has launched her own interior design company, Eliza Manners London, was sentenced on October 4 and fined £50 – less than half her stated weekly income. Documents obtained by the Evening Standard newspaper and seen by the Mail show she received three points on her licence and must pay £84 in costs. She has to settle up before Monday.
The case was handled under the single justice procedure, which allows minor offences to be considered in private by judges or magistrates without defendants having to appear in court. As regulars on the London social scene, mixing with royals and celebrities, Lady Eliza and her sisters, Lady Violet and Lady Alice, were once dubbed the ‘bad Manners girls’.
They all spent the first Covid lockdown last year at Belvoir Castle, which has been used as a filming location for The Crown and The Da Vinci Code.
The Mail has tried to contact Lady Eliza for a comment.