Forte Hotels Daughter's Mercedes Drive By

Bexley Magistrates' Court

The daughter of luxury hotelier Sir Rocco Forte has been fined for driving her Mercedes too close to a cyclist on Chelsea Embankment.

Lydia Forte, 37 - Group Director of Food & Beverage at Rocco Forte Hotels - claims she had to swerve to avoid an oncoming motorcyclist.

She did not appear at Bexley Magistrates’ Court, where she was fined £146, with £110 costs, plus a £58 victim surcharge and given three penalty points on her licence.

The magistrates had no financial information on Lydia, who has an executive role within her celebrated hotelier family, who have an estimated wealth of over £300m.

She admitted driving her blue two-litre Mercedes without reasonable consideration for other road users on January 31, last year on Chelsea Embankment, half-a-mile from her £4.5m home in Shawfield Street.

Mother-of-two Lydia was reported to the police by the unnamed cyclist, who was recording other road users and captured footage of her poor driving.

Prosecutor Alison Larkin told the court Forte only admitted the offence after her lawyers examined the video footage.

“She overtook a cyclist without being leaving 1.5 metres between her vehicle and the cyclist and then moved near the kerb while the cyclist was still present.

“There is no evidence of any contact or injuries.”

The video footage was not played in court.

In a letter read to the magistrates Forte’s lawyers confirmed they viewed the video evidence and after a case conference the offence was admitted.

However, they stressed Forte only drove her Mercedes to the left due to an oncoming motorcyclist approaching her on the wrong side of the road.

Announcing their fine, based on an estimate of Forte’s means, the Chairman Mehmet Tahsin announced: “The bench feel that is commensurate with what we have heard.”