Ex-United star Jesse Lingard is banned from driving for six months
Ex-Manchester United star Jesse Lingard is banned from driving for six months and fined £900 after giving police the name of a ‘fake driver’ when his Range Rover was caught on a speed camera
- Lingard’s car was caught speeding in Stretford, Manchester, in August last year
Footballer Jesse Lingard[3] was today given a six month road ban after admitting failing to give details of who was driving his Range Rover when it was caught speeding.
A previous court hearing was told the name of a fictitious man living at a non-existent address allegedly linked to a notorious scam had been given on behalf of the former England star.
However at a brief hearing today, the ex-Manchester United player’s solicitor said Lingard had been unaware that a notice of intended prosecution had been sent to his £3.4million mansion because he was not living there at the time after moving to Nottingham Forest.
The lawyer said 30-year-old Lingard was not responsible for an email which a court has previously heard identified the driver as a George Bolt.
But Frank Rogers, representing Lingard, said the player accepted that the ‘system’ he had in place to handle mail sent to his main address ‘wasn’t good enough’.
Jesse Lingard outside Manchester Magistrates’ Court today after being disqualified from driving
Lingard attended the court hearing in Manchester wearing a figure-hugging black suit and a black tie
Lingard, who earned £115,000-a-week at Nottingham Forest, was fined £900 for failing to provide information relating to the driver of his car and given six penalty points on his driving licence.
In addition to another six points imposed last year, that meant he was liable to be disqualified from driving.
Mr Rogers said Lingard – who the court heard is currently without a club after being released by Forest – was not arguing that a ban would cause him exceptional hardship, and District Judge Jane Hamilton imposed a six-month disqualification.
Lingard, who arrived in court dressed in a navy blue suit, left without commenting after the hearing at Manchester Magistrates’ Court.
A hearing earlier this year was told that a Range Rover Sport registered in Lingard’s name was flashed by a speed camera on the A56 in Trafford in August last year.
A notice of intended prosecution (NIP) requesting the details of who was driving was sent to his address in Altrincham, Stockport magistrates court heard in April.
Around two weeks later, an online nomination was made using Lingard’s email address giving the driver’s name as George Bolt, it heard.
However the hearing was told that Mr Bolt ‘doesn’t exist’, while the address provided was believed to be a car park, prosecutor Mike Ardern said.
He said Greater Manchester Police’s central ticket office had identified the name as being ‘linked to a so-called NIP farm’.
Such ‘farms’ are a notorious scam under which drivers and businesses pay criminals to supply them with fictitious details in a bid to avoid being fined or getting points on their licence for motoring offences.
Lingard did not attend that hearing, but Mr Rogers entered a not guilty plea on his behalf, saying his client ‘never saw the notice of intended prosecution’ and it had been ‘dealt with by a third party’.
Appearing in court today, Lingard stood in the well of the court as he confirmed his name and date of birth, and gave an address in Worsley, Greater Manchester.
Asked how he pleaded to the offence of failing to provide information, he answered: ‘Guilty.’
District Judge Jane Hamilton fined the footballer £900 with a further £560 in costs and warned him not to drive for the next six months
Prosecutor Tara Riley said the basis on which Lingard was pleading guilty was ‘not acceptable’ to the prosecution.
But she said that as the offence was a ‘straightforward failure to provide’ it would make no difference to his sentence.
Mr Rogers said Lingard had been at Manchester United since the age of nine, but that at the time of the alleged speeding offence was living in rented accommodation in Nottingham.
He said that ‘on reflection’ the footballer had opted to plead guilty on the basis that the ‘system in place’ for processing mail sent to his permanent address ‘wasn’t good enough’.
He said that at the time of the alleged speeding offence, ‘Mr Lingard was in Nottingham so was readily able to establish that he wasn’t the driver’.
Mr Rogers said that ‘at no stage’ did Lingard deal with the notice of intended prosecution.
He said the email address used to nominate the driver was linked to Lingard’s Instagram account and was ‘used by his staff’ as part of a business selling merchandise.
‘This was fairly new to him, being absent and having to organise his affairs differently,’ Mr Rogers said.
He said Lingard receives ‘very little mail’, with his financial affairs handled by his accountant.
‘It wasn’t envisaged much mail would be received at his Altrincham address,’ he added.
Mr Rogers said that had Lingard received the NIP, he could ‘easily’ have nominated the driver.
Had he been the driver himself, the resulting three points would not have been enough for him to be banned from driving.
As a result, Lingard had ‘no real incentive’ not to have dealt with it himself had he received the document, Mr Rogers said.
He said Lingard was single and financially supported his mother, brother, daughter and grandparents, and had never been disqualified before.
The player – who was released by Nottingham Forest after just 12 months having failed to score a single Premier League goal – was ‘currently in discussion with several clubs’ about his future, he said.
Lingard in 2022 when he was still playing for Manchester United
Mr Rogers said Lingard understood he would be banned and fined, asking for 28 days in which to pay up.
The court did not hear what speed the Range Rover was recorded as being driven.
District Judge Hamilton reduced the maximum £1,000 fine for failing to provide information by ten per cent to reflect Lingard’s late guilty plea, and imposed a six-month driving ban.
She also ordered him to pay £200 court costs and imposed a £360 surcharge, meaning Lingard must pay a total of £1,460.
The district judge told Lingard he could be sent to prison if he failed to pay up on time or attempted to drive while disqualified.
Asked if he understood, Lingard nodded in acknowledgement.
A known car lover, Lingard’s fleet has included a Bentley Bentayga worth £180,000, a Mercedes-AMG C63 S Coupe worth more than £80,000 and Bentley Continental GT worth £200,000.
Many had custom body kits and during his time at Manchester United were given matte black wraps with the cars’ emblems coloured red.
Lingard made 232 appearances for Manchester United and has featured for the national side 32 times.
Last year Greater Manchester Police revealed that a terraced house in Oldham was at the centre of a ‘NIP farm’ scam, with hundreds of drivers from around the country using names of fictitious people supposedly living at the address in a bid to avoid prosecution.
They launched prosecutions of 126 registered vehicle keepers for failing to provide information.
There is no suggestion that Lingard had any involvement with the scam.
References
- ^ James Tozer (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Rory Tingle, Home Affairs Correspondent (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Jesse Lingard (www.dailymail.co.uk)