Officer receives three points after driving seized Lamborghini at twice the legal speed limit
An officer who mistakenly seized a £200,000 supercar and allegedly took it for a “joy ride” on the “long way round” to the police pound has been penalised by his force.
Aug 10, 2016
By Nick Hudson
An officer who mistakenly seized a £200,000 supercar and allegedly took it for a “joy ride” on the “long way round” to the police pound has been penalised by his force.
The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) officer confiscated the Lamborghini Huracan and was then caught speeding at more than twice the legal limit. He has been handed three points on his licence.
The officer, and a colleague who has since been subject to “management action”, impounded the vehicle near Heathrow in June after checks wrongly indicated it had no insurance.
As they drove it to a pound, the cars hidden tracker clocked the vehicle travelling at up to 63mph in a 30mph zone prompting the luxury car hire firm that owned the Lamborghini to claim the officers had taken it for a “joyride”.
City Supercars managing director, Erwyn Mackee, said the confusion arose because the company had changed its insurance company and the new details had not registered on the national insurance database.
It meant that when the car was pulled over in the early hours of June 1 as a delivery driver was taking it to be collected by a client the officers refused to believe a letter Mr Mackee sent them from the insurance broker because they thought it could be `Photoshopped`.
Mr Mackee said at the time: Eventually they said they were going to impound the car. “But each of our cars has a tracker fitted, so we can follow what is happening to them and I could not believe it when I saw the car was being driven over double the speed limit.
The police pound is just across the road from where the car was stopped but the officer obviously decided to take the long way round.
The tracker records show the car being driven on the North Perimeter Road in Hounslow at speeds of 53mph, 47 mph and 63 mph all in a 30 mph limit.
After the incident, Mr Mackee posted a tweet to @MetPolice saying: Your officers unlawfully impounded our Lamborghini tonight and went for joy ride at over double speed limit.
A MPS spokesperson said officers had since established the Lamborghini had adequate insurance.
“After becoming aware of the car owner`s concerns, an internal investigation was conducted,” the spokesperson added.
“The police officer who drove the car was given three penalty points on his police driving record. A second officer was subject to management action.
“We are in the process of reimbursing the owner of the car the statutory £150 removal fee.”