An English tycoon has said he told his driver to avoid a police pursuit because he didn't want to be caught with his mistress, one week after reconciling with his wife.
Maurice 'Fred' Sines, a 57-year-old owner of several lucrative caravan parks, had been attending the PGA golf tournament in Surrey in May 2018 before he was charged with dangerous driving.
Police had heard complaints about Sines' behaviour at the golf and pulled in as he was leaving.
They then went to pull the car over but pursued it when the driver didn't stop.
It drove erratically including on the wrong side of the road and went the wrong way around a roundabout. The court said he also narrowly missed causing a head-on crash.
Police stopped pursuing Sines when they discovered a fault with their radio but the car was found abandoned.
Sines was soon found and he told police he had instructed the chauffeur of his $830,000 Rolls Royce Phantom to speed up as he didn't want to get caught in an affair.
But in the Guildford Crown Court on Tuesday, CCTV tapes revealed Sines was the driver of the car.
With the evidence, Sines admitted he was at the wheel of the car and changed his plea to guilty.
On Tuesday Judge Robert Fraser said Sines gave "clearly and utterly a false account" and only came clean when the evidence exposed the lie.
"You have been remarkably foolish for somebody of your years in life and experiences in life to have done what you did, that is an act of extreme foolhardiness and danger to other road users."
The Daily Mail reported he was handed an eight-month sentence suspended for two years.
He also received a two-year driving ban, a three month tagged curfew, a $10,200 penalty and $8600 in court costs.
The court heard how Sines would be affected by a sentence as he managed the caravan parks he owns alone and has to travel significant distances between them. He also helps to care for his grandson who needs feeding through a tube due to a colitis operation.
He has also previously been banned from horse racing for 14 years due to fixing several 2009 races. Sines is also a person of interest in connection to an Irish cartel.
