Instead of paying a speeding ticket like a normal person might, David Beckham opted to plead not guilty and take this thing to court. There, his slick lawyer—known by British media as “Mr. Loophole”—got him off on a technicality, the BBC reported.
The former England soccer star and current Miami FC president was accused of driving a loaned Bentley at 59 mph in a 40 mph zone on a highway near London on Jan. 23. He had pled not guilty, and at a hearing on Thursday, Beckham’s lawyer, Nick Freeman, argued that the speeding ticket had arrived in the mail one day too late, and was therefore invalid. From the BBC:
District judge Barbara Barnes said a Notice of Intended Prosecution (NIP) was sent on 2 February and should have arrived at Bentley Motors Ltd, the registered keepers of the vehicle, by 6 February.
However, she was satisfied on the evidence heard it did not in fact arrive until 7 February - one day outside the statutory 14-day window.
Summing up, she said the law allowed for the “vagaries” of the postal system to be taken into account.
She said: “What I find is the fact it did not arrive in the post room of Bentley Motors Ltd until 7 February and therefore was one day outside the legal limit.
“The defendant in this case cannot be convicted.”
Freeman said his client was “very relieved with the verdict,” which is weird considering the punishments for speeding in England are not especially harsh. Mr. Loophole almost certainly cost more than whatever the fine for speeding would have been.