A property tycoon based in the millionaire’s playground Sandbanks who was caught speeding in his Aston Martin four times in three months tried to avoid a driving ban by telling magistrates he was living on just £219 a week.
Controversial company director Richard Carr racked up 16 points on his licence after he was clocked repeatedly breaking the speed limit in Poole, Dorset.
The worst of the offences was when he was caught at 64mph on the 40mph A338.
The 66-year-old failed to show up for his court appearance and instead sent magistrates a letter.
In it he claimed that he has limited means, describing himself as ‘retired’ and having a monthly income of just £971.
This was apparently because his high-end property development company, Fortitudo, had gone into adminstration this summer with Carr blaming the government’s wealth taxes for the declining state of the luxury housing market.
Weymouth Magistrates’ Court heard there was no explanation why he did not answer his summons and the case went ahead in his absence.
Carr was banned from driving for six months and ordered to pay £744 in fines and costs.
Property tycoon Richard Carr (pictured) has claimed his lives on just £219 a week in an attempt to avoid a driving ban after he was caught speeding in his Aston Martin four times in three months
The entrepreneur, who lives in a £1.5m house in the posh Lilliput area of Poole, was first caught by a speed camera on October 27 last year doing 38mph on a 30mph road in Corfe Mullen.
He was then recorded doing 42mph on the same road again on November 20.
On January 20 he was caught speeding at 64mph and on February 6 he was captured doing 36mph in a 30mph stretch of the A35 in Poole.
Chris Baker, prosecuting for Dorset Police, said on the February matter ‘signed correspondence was received disputing’ the offence with Carr ‘questioning the operation of the camera’.
With the other offences he did not respond to any of the prosecution notices sent to him, but did later admit all four speeding offences.
In his letter to the court, Carr disputed the February incident, stating: ‘The Association of Chief Police Officers set a standard tolerance of ten percent plus 2mph.
‘I have asked to see the exact speed I was doing, why no decimal point? I was doing one mile over the protocol. I’d like to know how the rounding is done.’
In relation to the Corfe Mullen offence, he said: ‘The speed limit on this road is predominantly 40mph but drops to 30mph conveniently for a short period of time where the camera is.
Carr failed to show up for his court appearance and instead sent magistrates a letter
Carr owns one of the most expensive plots in the exclusive Sandbanks area of Poole (pictured)
‘This has clearly been engineered to catch people out.’
For doing 64mph in a 40mph he simply said: ‘I’m sorry, I can only apologise.’
The court heard he already had six penalty points on his licence for two previous matters of speeding.
On top of the ban the magistrates also gave Carr 16 penalty points – six for the worst speeding in January.
That brought his total points to 22 – with drivers who receive more than 12 in a three-year period subject to disqualification.
Carr set himself up as a wealthy property developer and owner of several bars and nightclubs in Bournemouth and Poole in the 2000s.
But his two previous companies, Future 3000 and Ravine Lifestyle, collapsed in 2008 and he was declared personally bankrupt.
He was given restrictions preventing him from becoming a company director again for 10 years without a court’s permission.
But that hasn’t stopped him from getting behind a number of grand property developments in the area in recent years.
Carr is also involved in grand £300m plans for the three Sandbanks hotels, which had so far been rejected by planners, but which he said he plans to continue with.
In 2023 he said he had no plans to slow down and changed the direction of the business so it wasn’t so reliant on residential and the company was involved with more commercial projects too.
Although Fortitudo has gone out of business Carr pledged to continue with developing commercial property including roadside retail and student accommodation.