Football
ESPN 6y

Southampton's Mario Lemina fined £96,000, banned from driving for speeding

Southampton midfielder Mario Lemina has been banned from driving for a year and fined £96,425 ($123,849) after his car was caught speeding three times.

Lemina, 25, claimed he was not behind the wheel of his Mercedes-AMG 4matic on any of the three occasions it was captured by speed cameras, but could not be sure which one of his family members who were visiting him at the time was behind the wheel.

Aldershot Magistrate's court was told that the car was clocked travelling at 95 miles per hour on a dual carriageway and twice at 60mph in a temporary 40mph speed limit zone.

The Gabon international, who did not respond to letters from Hampshire Constabulary, pleaded guilty for failure to provide identification. He had 18 points added to his licence, and was issued with a fine that is reported to be a British record.

Lemina's lawyer Cliff Morris told the court, as reported by the Southampton Echo: "He didn't realise the importance of the forms.

"English is not his first language, and his English is not particularly good. "He is not sure if his brother or his cousin was driving the vehicle at the time and the photographs don't assist with this.

"He thought it best to plead guilty to failing to provide identification."

Lemina, who joined Southampton from Juventus for £18.1 million in 2017, was fined £32,000 for each offence by the court. He was not present in court when the fine.

Magistrate Carol Bode said: "This would have been £48,000 for each offence, but we have taken into account his guilty pleas.

"He will pay a further £85 costs on each case, and a victim surcharge of £170, which makes a £96,425 total to pay.

"For each of those offences to fail to ID is six points on the licence -- that is 18 points.

"Given he has 21 points already, it comes to 39 points and we will disqualify him from driving for one year.

"Thirty-nine points -- I think that's the most amount of points we have ever seen in court."

^ Back to Top ^