9:48 am, July 18, 2014
A CONTROVERSIAL car dealer has avoided a driving ban, despite taking to the road while disqualified.
Richard Burbage admitted the offence but magistrates in Fareham, Hampshire, just fined him and added six points to his licence.
Burbage, of Donkey Lane, Botley, said he had been aware of an earlier 28-day disqualification but not the six-month ban he broke, which was imposed during a court hearing he didn’t attend.
Because of the breakdown of his marriage, he said he hadn’t been receiving his post, including written notification of the ban, imposed last December for using a mobile phone while at the wheel.
Burbage has been the subject of a long-running investigation by the Daily Echo, Southampton.
The newspaper has reported that hundreds of people in Australia are desperate to speak to him after a company of which he was a director folded. And Burbage has been connected to Woolston Car Supermarket, a firm that closed suddenly after customers complained of being sold faulty cars.
He now works for a company called Service for Life as a driver and a car salesman and has moved back into the family home, the Echo reported.
The court was told that Burbage was caught breaking his driving ban while at the wheel of a Peugeot at an industrial estate in Fareham.
As well as the six-point penalty, Burbage was fined £200, and ordered to pay £85 court costs and a £20 victim surcharge.
