An aristocrat responsible for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II was yesterday banned from driving for six months after police caught him chatting to his wife on his mobile phone.
Court On The Phone: The Duke of Norfolk
His Grace The Duke of Norfolk, Edward William Fitzalan-Howard, 65, failed to convince magistrates he should not be disqualified to allow him to organise the coronation of King Charles III.
Lavender Hill Magistrates Court heard the officers suspected him of jumping a red light as he crossed a junction in front of them.
In his hereditary role as Earl Marshal he told the court he is also in charge of the coronation and asked successfully for part of the hearing to be held in private in the interests of “national security.”
He pleaded guilty to one count of driving his six year-old blue three-litre diesel BMW while using a hand-held device in Battersea Park Road, south-west London on April 7.
He was fined £800, with £350 costs and ordered to pay an £80 victim surcharge.
The six penalty points imposed by the magistrates on His Grace, added to the nine already on his driving licence after two speeding convictions automatically triggered the six-month disqualification under totting rules.
He unsuccessfully argued the disqualification would cause him “exceptional hardship” in organising the coronation and running his estate, which employs 150 people.
Magistrate Judith Way announced: “We accept this is a unique case because of the defendant’s role in society and his role in the King’s coronation and even though inconvenience may be caused we do not find exceptional hardship.
“We know the need for security clearance for any driver and we do not think this is insurmountable for his high-profile role.
“We believe the defendant has the means to employ a driver.”
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| Court of the King: Arriving at Lavender Hill |
Prosecutor Jonathan Bryan told the court: “The time was just before 4.15pm in the afternoon.
“Police officers were in a vehicle on Battersea Park Road when they saw a BMW.
“They were stationary at traffic lights and their light turned green and the BMW cut across them and they assumed he must have jumped a red light. and noticed the driver was using a mobile phone and not paying attention.
“They drove up to the driver and looked through the window and saw the driver was using a mobile phone.
“The driver was His Grace and he said he did not know he went through a red light and was in conversation with his wife and that is why he was using the phone.”
The court did not hear any prosecution regarding a red light offence.
Initially His Grace fought the case, submitting a not guilty plea and was scheduled to stand trial before his late change of plea.
“He stands to be disqualified as a totter for a period of at least six months,” added the prosecutor.
Applying for the press to be excluded from His Grace’s “exceptional hardship” application his lawyer Natasha Dardashti said details of the coronation of King Charles III would have to be revealed.
“This is an extremely peculiar submission. His Grace the Duke of Norfolk, as Earl Marshal was responsible for the preparations of the funeral of her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth II and is now the person in the country responsible for the coronation of his Royal Highness King Charles III.
“His Grace will need to provide some information and details of the coronation of his Royal Highness.
“The reason for this to be in camera is for reasons of national security and there are details that have not yet been discussed with his Royal Highness; the Prime Minister and the Archbishop of Canterbury.
“The application for exceptional hardship should be in camera to prevent the escape of that information, which is of an exceptionally sensitive nature.”
He is the current 18th Duke of Norfolk and a member of the House of Lords and as the Duke of Norfolk is the most senior peer in the peerage of England.
He is a member of the House of Howard and inherited his title from his father Miles Francis Stapleton Fitzalan-Howard, the 17th Duke of Norfolk.
He was educated at Ampleforth private boarding school and Lincoln College, Oxford and is married to Georgina Susan Gore and is the father of three sons and two daughters.
“Once the coronation of his Royal Highness has taken place there will be no need for these details of the coronation to remain private,” added Ms Dardashti.
“The organisation of state occasions takes years of planning and involves issues of security for world leaders attending the UK, the public and other people attending, which will require his grace to go into details .”
Lavender Hill did explore transferring the case to Westminster Magistrates Court to be heard before the Chief Magistrate of England and Wales Senior District Judge Paul Goldspring due to issues of “national security” but his office was happy for it to be dealt with “locally.”
Regarding the application for a part-private hearing Mr Bryan said: “We take a neutral position on that. It is not for the Crown to take a view one way or the other.
“There has to be a compelling reason for that course. Is it really necessary for the defence to go into such details that would compromise those arrangements?”
The magistrates agreed to hear details of His Grace’s role in the coronation in private and afterwards Ms Dardashti said: “This is a huge and very, very peculiar responsibility.
“His huge responsibility for the coronation means he needs to drive to all parts of the UK for meetings and to arrange what will be another huge world spectacle.
“The Royal Family are loved throughout this country and all over the world and are economically very, very important to the economy of this country.
“The coronation of a King is financially important to all of us.
“He does not get paid for being Earl Marshal and is working with a huge amount of responsibility and must be available at short notice.
“The logistics of having four drivers with security clearance to drive him around if he needs to go anywhere, even at 3am are not workable.
“It would be a huge extravagance to have a team of drivers. It is not workable and is not realistic.
“This is a particular point in the history of this nation. The coronation of His Majesty King Charles III.
“It is a huge responsibility for this one man.
“It is because of this timing it is so crucial that he keeps his licence.”
His Grace stepped into the witness box and appealed for the magistrates not to impose six penalty points, claiming “exceptional hardship” to his livelihood and his 150 full-time and part-time staff if he was disqualified.
“I am the Chief Executive of the Dukedom, farming, forestry, our business assets etc. That is my job.”
Explaining his Peppering Project, a conservation initiative on 3,000 acres of his estate, His Grace insisted he needed his driving licence to use the public roads to access the area.
“For twenty years we have been trying to find a way to save nature and to feed the world,” he told the court.
He was trying to save at least ten “red-listed”endangered species and needed his licence to drive, sometimes at 4am to the South Downs, to monitor this progress.
“I spend an enormous amount of time in my spare hours witnessing the revival of nature and managing bringing this change about.
“Dawn and dusk are the crucial times to count the species and I need to use the public roads to do this,” His Grace told the magistrates.
He claimed he was £45m in debt after buying back 14,000 acres of his Dukedom’s original land. “That, in effect, is my life’s work done.”
His Grace said continuing to be allowed to drive was vital to the health of his estate and its ability to repay increasing interest charges.
“The interest burden has doubled and will put enormous strain on our income flow from the Dukedom to meet the burden.”
He also owns lands in Norfolk, Yorkshire and industrial units in Sheffield.
“If there is a problem I have to be able to react and I do not know where I will be. I may go to Yorkshire and drive or to Norfolk and the only way to get there is to drive.
“Also my office in Arundel is four miles away from where I live.”
Hiring a chauffeur would be challenging to his “chaotic schedule” the court heard.
“Obviously I have the means to hire a driver, but the trouble is life is not that simple. I do not know if I have to drive at four in the morning to see the Curlew.”
His Grace also said he preferred the informality of arriving for work in “my old BMW” than be chauffeur-driven. “I like to be straightforward and being accessible to people.”
Regarding any ban he added: “It will curtail my manoeuvrability to an extent. It could be very, very serious and my responsibility is to those 150 people and those 150 families.
“Even if one family was effected and some have been with us forty, thirty years. If Gary the tractor driver were to lose his job I’d feel responsible. If I lost twenty to thirty people that way I’d be mortified.”
The magistrates dismissed the Duke of Norfolk’s application not to be disqualified on the grounds of ‘exceptional hardship’, indicating they did not believe a ban would put the jobs of employees in jeopardy.
They also concluded he could employ a driver if necessary.
Outside court the Duke indicated he did not want to answer any questions.
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