Southampton midfielder Mario Lemina has ‘record UK speeding fine’ of £96,425 reduced to just £2,301 after court error
The 25-year-old will have to pay a fraction of his original fine after it emerged he had been sanctioned incorrectly
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Your support makes all the difference.Southampton midfielder Mario Lemina has had his UK record speeding fine of £96,425 reduced to just £2,301, after it emerged that the court responsible for determining the punishment made an error.
Lemina was fined and handed 18 points on top of the 21 already on his driving licence on Monday, with his Mercedes having been caught breaking the speed limit on three occasions.
The fine, around 150 percent of Lemina’s weekly salary, constituted the largest financial penalty ever handed out for motoring offences in the UK, surpassing the £86,000 fine given to to TV presenter Ant McPartlin for drink-driving in April.
But he will now have to pay just £2,301 after it became clear that Aldershot Magistrates’ Court had sentenced him under the guidelines for the wrong charge.
Lemina admitted three counts of failing to identify the driver of a car after claiming that his brother or cousin may have been driving his car when the offences were committed.
Three charges of speeding were dropped, but the 25-year-old was mistakenly fined in accordance with the guidelines for speeding offences rather than failing to identify the driver of a car.
At a second hearing on Wednesday, Lemina’s fine was revised down more than £94,000, though the original points punishment handed down remained unchanged.
Lemina’s total of 39 penalty points prompted the court to disqualify him from driving for a year. He did not appear in court himself, with his lawyer Cliff Morris entering his pleas on his behalf.
“He didn't realise the importance of the forms,” Mr Morris told The Daily Mail. “English is not his first language, and his English is not particularly good.
“He is not sure if his brother or his cousin was driving the vehicle at the time and the photographs don't assist with this.
“He thought it best to plead guilty to failing to provide identification. He accepts he should have filed the paperwork.
“The football club only discovered he had paperwork when he attended his office to assist with other matters - his wife has just had a baby in the last 10 days.
“There's a degree of disorganisation. He knows what this will automatically mean for him.”
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