A hedge fund manager tried to get a £440 driving fine reduced when he appeared in court today.
But magistrates slapped on another £129, telling him he could have faced a £2,000 bill.
Piers Buckworth, head of hedge fund sales and partner at MINT Partners claimed he has a joint income with his wife of £120,000 a year.
He was banned from driving for six months in May 2018 for driving without insurance.
The 36-year-old was also caught traveling at 41mph in a 30 zone in his Honda along Lower Thames Street in central London on December 4 last year.
He initially indicated a guilty plea at an earlier hearing and informed the court he could not attend as he had to take his pregnant wife to a hospital appointment.
But the guilty plea was not passed on to the court and he was sentenced in his absence, he said.
Buckworth, who lives in a £1.2 million pound house in Fulham, was fined £440 and given four points on his licence, the court heard.
At City of London Magistrates Court today (Mon) Buckworth applied to reopen the case and formally enter his guilty plea.
Representing himself, wearing beige chinos and a white shirt, he argued he should have been fined less because of his earlier guilty plea.
He told the court: “I find it odd that my guilty plea wasn’t taken into account and would hope the fine would be reduced due to my guilty pleas.”
But magistrates fined him the same amount as well as a £44 victim surcharge and £85 court costs, making a total for him to pay of £569.
Buckworth was also given four points on his licence when he gets it back.
Chair of the bench Andrew McMurtie said: “The fine and points on your licence are put on in relation to the speed you were going over the limit.
“It could have been a £2,000 fine but we have significantly reduced it, we have given a significant dispensation for that guilty plea.”
Buckworth, who told the court his joint annual household income is £120,000, is listed as head of hedge fund sales and partner at MINT Partners.
He previously worked at JP Morgan as an executive director and a sales associate at Bear Stearns until 2008 after getting a banking degree at City University London.
His brother Louis, a nightclub entrepreneur, was married to Chloe Delevingne – model Cara’s older sister – in 2007, which was attended by the Duchess of York and her two daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie.
He was also linked with ex-Spice Girl Geri Halliwell In 2014.
Piers Buckworth, of Fulham, west London, has been pictured with his wife Nadia at the wedding of Victoria Pye and Jeremy ‘Jez’ Lawson in Phuket last year.
