BMW Mini boss jailed for 101mph

[mab01uk]

Daily Mail Report
A top BMW boss has been jailed for six weeks for lying to police after being clocked speeding at 101mph in a Mini.

Thomas Moser, 48, finance director of the BMW-owned Mini factory in Oxford was given three times to change his story.

Yesterday he was jailed for perjury after claiming falsely that his 19-year-old son had been driving the car at more than twice the legal 50mph speed limit.
He is the latest in a growing number of motorists who try to illegally "swap points" to keep their licences clean or escape a ban.
Mr Moser, from Oxford, was caught shortly after 7am on May 4 by a speed-camera van on Oxford's Eastern by-pass. The legal limit on the road is 50 mph.
He was driving a BMW-owned Mini - the cult car made by the British-based but German owned firm whose finances he controlled, Banbury Magistrates' court was told.
Despite photographic evidence to the contrary, Moser, a German national, claimed his son Maximilian was driving at the time of the offence.
He continued to name his son despite three times being given the chance to change his story.
He pleaded guilty in court to making a false written statement and to the speeding charge.
Moser, who has a 20-year career with BMW and was believed to be on a six-figure salary, was sentenced to six weeks jail for perjury, and fined £1,200 for speeding.
He was ordered to pay £60 costs and was disqualified from driving for three months.
The company's top of the range Mini Cooper S has a top speed of 140mph.
Yesterday's jail sentence on a senior executive is expected to be taken as a salutary lesson to others.
A spokeswoman for BMW said last night: "We are investigating disciplinary action in this case.
"Mr Moser is the finance director of the Oxford Mini plant."
The incident tarnishes a proud record for BMW which has reinvented the iconic British-built Mini for the 21st century - and reaped a boom in sales.
BMW announced recently that the capacity of the booming Mini factory in Oxford is to be expanded to produce 260,000 cars a year - 20,000 more than the 240,000 already earmarked.
Mini has just launched a new Mini Clubman estate car, with two open doors at the back and a double opening at the side.
A Mini "off-roader" recreational vehicle is also planned, but BMW has confirmed that this will be built abroad, possibly in Austria.
The car giant has invested £100million and created 200 more jobs at the factory - taking the total workforce at Oxford to 4,500.
But with an engine plant at Hams Hall and a body pressing plant in Swindon, the total UK workforce is 6,800. The investment is on top of £280million between 2000 and 2004.
Darren McCauley, head of car insurance at Churchill, said:"People have become so dependent on their cars that they will go to great lengths to avoid a driving ban.
"Unless driving habits change, speeding will become a real threat to the modern motorist."


By contrast, England soccer legend Teddy Sheringham admitted in July nominating someone else to take speeding points for him - but escaped with a caution.
He was among a group of stars arrested for allegedly swapping speeding points to beat driving bans.
Sheringham, 41, initially denied the allegation.
But the policeman's son later accepted a caution for perverting the course of justice.
He spent an hour with police after answering bail at Chingford Police Station, East London.
Sheringham, who has been awarded an MBE, will not have a police record but details of the offence will be kept on file.
His former West Ham club-mate Bobby Zamora got cautioned for the same offence two weeks earlier.
One reason for the crackdown on 'points swapping' is a change in the nature of speed cameras.
Traditional style yellow-box 'GATSO cameras flash from the rear, so the identity of the driver is not seen. By contrast, new forward facing digital cameras have a clear shot of the driver's face, which can be used for identification purposes.

[mph1703]

It never fails to surprise me how stupid intelligent people can be. If the police give you 3 chances to change your story over a speed camera offence you know they are onto something. Plus, the police aren’t stupid they know that at 7.00 in the morning most 19-year-old males will still be in bed!

[iain cooper]

the guy must be a complete idiot, a German national ? maybe he thought he was on the autobahn ?

[dukesantos]

Crazy. I predict BMW will either fire him or transfer him back to Germany and forget about it. I doubt if they will have him return to the Oxford plant.

[Tara&Paul]

"Unless driving habits change, speeding will become a real threat to the modern motorist."

...only if you get caught.

[Ramon]

That is a bit daft doing 101 in a 50 limit! he deserves a much longer ban. I was caught doing 105 (in my Series 3 BMW) in North Wales and told by my solicitor that I was in for a 12 month ban and £1,000 fine. Fortunately the police lost my summons! I then returned to Madeira (GRIN) quickly.

[mph1703]

Quote: Originally Posted by Ramon (original)

That is a bit daft doing 101 in a 50 limit! he deserves a much longer ban. I was caught doing 105 (in my Series 3 BMW) in North Wales and told by my solicitor that I was in for a 12 month ban and £1,000 fine. Fortunately the police lost my summons! I then returned to Madeira (GRIN) quickly.

Be carefully the North Wales traffic police are known as the traffic taleban. You can run but you can't hide!

[slim_boy_fat]

How about changing the title of the thread so that its correct as he clearly wasnt jailed for speeding.

Just in the interest of good reporting that is.

[PGN-1]

Here in Finland his 6 figure salary would have prompted a fine in 5 figures... Although I don't know if foreign nationals can escape this.

[Tara&Paul]

Quote: Originally Posted by mph1703 (original)

Be carefully the North Wales traffic police are known as the traffic taleban. You can run but you can't hide!

And they are run by Iasnot Binspeedin'......

[morrisminiminor]

Could this guy be the person who aggorantly insisted that the suicide door was only available on the right hand side of the car due to cost implications? If he was, the saying 'What goes round comes round springs to mind'

morrisminiminor.

[Ant FR]

Yes he was stupid,


But, a few months back a lorry driver looking at a piece of paper makes a left turn and runs over and kills a cyclist. he was negligent and killed someone, he gets slap on wrist and a silly fine. Guy lies to the court and commits cardinal sin of annoying the courts ( thats what it is by the way) and he gets put in prison.

See, another highlight of our insanely inconsistent and downright nonsensicle justice system in the UK

In Germany he would have been fined and in his case it would have been a big amount as they work on a percentage of your salary. He would be made to look silly and hoped he wil think better of it next time. However we waste more tax payers money putting him inside, he learns nothing, and in fact even worse could end up losing his job and we get less tax money from him.

Sorry don't justfy what he did at all, but the point that this has got as far as it has shows how stupid our system is. It also shows how bad the point system is, due to the ability to get points being so much easier in todays climate, why should we have to still work on the 12 points your out rule, i am sure there are people on here who will have 9 points etc. its the norm in todays world, part of driving i suppose, so you can then se why people are so keen to protect clean licences. Maybe stiffer fines and lower points given for offences.

However i still do not understand why he would lie and say it was his son if it was'nt, because surely he would need to drive, and at 19 a ban would be worse for him. May be we will never know the whole truth on this one, but something does not add up on it thats for sure.

End of the day its just another reason why i dont see myself being in this **** hole of a country in 10 years time.