Speeding motorist caught out by his own beard
Hale resident Noveed Mumtaz had clocked up a number of speeding tickets while behind the wheel of a fleet of luxury supercars, and had nominated various members of his family, including some who lived abroad, as the drivers at the time of the offences.
On one occasion, he was caught speeding in an Audi R8 sports car on the Radcliffe Road in Bury, but convinced his 64-year-old mother to take the rap for him.
However, police were suspicious as to the true identity of the driver and consulted CCTV footage, which showed the driver sporting a full, black beard.
Despite the evidence against him, Mumtaz continued to deny the offence, which occurred in April 2012, until two days into his trial at Manchester Crown Court.
He finally pleaded guilty to three counts of perverting the course of justice and was jailed for six months.
The Mirror reported that the court heard how Mumtaz was described by his own wife as being "caught in the trappings of a flamboyant lifestyle," in his role as the director of a luxury car hire company.
Mumtaz's defence argued that it was not in the public interest to send him to jail.
Trial judge, Lindsey Kushner QC, disagreed, and said the seriousness of the offence warranted a custodial sentence.
"The whole structure of our legal system, in particular with motoring offences, depends on people having a notion of honesty," she commented.
"It's very easy to avoid responsibility by lying and cheating - but if people did that on a wholesale basis our system of justice would implode."
Speaking after the case, PC Vaughan Sherrah-Davies of Manchester Police's roads unit warned of the risks of attempting to pervert the course of justice in this way, saying: "Mumtaz had the option to take £60 fine and three points on his licence, but he chose to run the risk of gambling it all.
"That has now backfired and got him a worse punishment than he could have imagined."
