Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Ferrari death driver weeps
‘Mystery buyer’ pays a fortune for missing peer’s memorabilia
A BUSINESSMAN accused of causing the death of a schoolboy passenger when he crashed a £1.2million Ferrari F50 wept as he gave evidence yesterday.
Matthew Cobden said he was sorry for not asking Alex Worth, 13, to wear a seatbelt. “It’s something I think about all the time as, if I did, it could have been different,” he sobbed.
Cobden, of Walton-onthames, Surrey, denies death by careless driving.
The trial continues at Winchester crown court.
COOLER: £1,500
LORD Lucan’s personal belongings sold for high prices at auction – and most were bought by a mystery buyer who spent thousands.
Bidders at the sale shouted: “Is Lord Lucan buying his own things back?”
There was frenzied bidding on many items connected to the fugitive who disappeared in 1974 after killing his family’s nanny.
And there were gasps in the auction room yesterday as the anonymous buyer, bidding from the Isle of Man via the internet, kept winning successive lots at Holloway’s Auctioneers in Banbury, Oxon.
Among the amazing sales was Lucan’s silk top hat, which was expected to make £50 but went for £2,200.
His yacht’s flagpole, cap and red ensign flag had been priced at £50 yet
FLAG: £3,400
sold for £3,400. A silver-plated wine cooler was expected to go for £80 but raised £1,500. And his House of Lords ermine gown made £360 instead of £80. Potential buyers came from as far away as Australia. Auctioneer James Lees said: “You won’t get the chance to buy these sort of items again.”
But most had no opportunity of affording anything as internet bids spiralled. Mr Lees said later: “We were very pleased with how it went. “Items sold for far more than expected.” He added that it was the first time the auction house had known an online bidder from the Isle of Man. The memorabilia was sold after being cleared from Lucan’s former home in Belgravia, West London. His wife Lady Lucan killed herself there last year, 43 years after he fled. Oil paintings by her, expected to make £80, sold for £1,300.
TOPPER: £2,200