Photo: driventowrite.com
In the UK, when you break the speed limit, you are usually slapped with a few points on your driving license and a fine. If you do it again, you get more points and a new fine. Once you reach 12 points on your driving license, you may be banned from driving for a period of up to six months.
Jean-Marc Gales, chief executive of sports-car manufacturer Lotus, already had some eight points assigned to him for various driving offenses when he was, again, clocked by police using a hand-held device at a speed of 102 miles per hour (164 km/h) in a 70 mph (112 km/h) zone, on UK's A11 near Norwich, Norfolk.
Although it is unclear when this happened, Mr. Gales was faced with a choice: either accept the three-points + fine penalty, which the Brits from The Telegraph say any commoner would have got, or try some other strategy. He chose the latter.
Gales' lawyer convinced the court to punish the CEO with a 30-day driving ban and some lunch money for a fine. Mind you, the three extra points that he would have been generally penalized with would have got him dangerously close to the 6-months ban threshold.
The defense used by the attorney (considered brilliant by U.S. media outlest and offensive by UK's tabloids) was centered around Gales' performance as a CEO, who usually test drives the company's newest models. This practice of his is only one component of a manager's approach that is responsible “for the remarkable turnaround in the fortunes of the company,” the lawyer said according to the source.
Gales will still have his license stained with the eight points he already had - four short of a six-month ban. The court apparently instructed him to stick to specially designed test tracks instead of using public roads for his high-speed sorties.
Although it is unclear when this happened, Mr. Gales was faced with a choice: either accept the three-points + fine penalty, which the Brits from The Telegraph say any commoner would have got, or try some other strategy. He chose the latter.
Gales' lawyer convinced the court to punish the CEO with a 30-day driving ban and some lunch money for a fine. Mind you, the three extra points that he would have been generally penalized with would have got him dangerously close to the 6-months ban threshold.
The defense used by the attorney (considered brilliant by U.S. media outlest and offensive by UK's tabloids) was centered around Gales' performance as a CEO, who usually test drives the company's newest models. This practice of his is only one component of a manager's approach that is responsible “for the remarkable turnaround in the fortunes of the company,” the lawyer said according to the source.
Gales will still have his license stained with the eight points he already had - four short of a six-month ban. The court apparently instructed him to stick to specially designed test tracks instead of using public roads for his high-speed sorties.
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