An earl who couldn’t afford to insure his Lexus expressed his disbelief that a court could “offer its verdict before the case started”.

David Brudenell-Bruce, the earl of Cardigan, had been due to appeal his three-month driving ban – imposed after he was convicted of doing 15mph above the speed limit in an uninsured Lexus in Marlborough on November 17, 2019. 

He was caught by police just a month after he was given six penalty points for driving an uninsured car in 2018. 

However, Ben Irwin, for Brudenell-Bruce, told Swindon Crown Court on Thursday that his client was withdrawing the appeal.

It followed a warning from Judge Jason Taylor QC that the court would be looking at the sentence afresh and the March disqualification could go up or down. 

Judge Taylor, flanked by two magistrates, said: “It might well be we take a dim view that somebody who having been convicted of having no insurance a year later is driving again with no insurance.

“If he had such important family circumstances, he was on notice that he should be complying with the law because he was in a precarious position.”

Speaking outside court after the hearing, the earl said he felt “disbelief that the court can offer me its verdict before the case even starts”.

He had not been able to afford to insure his Lexus, he said.

Asked what he would have said to the judge in mitigation and what impact the ban would have, he said: “I would have explained the nightmare scenario of bringing up a seven-year-old child with medical issues and a mother who doesn’t drive and they are both entirely dependent upon me. 

“It’s a nightmare. There’s no public transport in the forest. When I came back from the first hearing I got as far as Marlborough, as I’m going to do now on the X7 bus from the bus station, [and] rang up to get a taxi up to Savernake. The one taxi firm said nothing at all today, one said it would be three hours. 

“You can’t tell a seven year old girl with difficulties that there’s going to be a three hour wait.”

In March, Swindon magistrates imposed eight points on the earl's licence – then banned him as a “totter” as he had accumulated more than 12 penalty points.

But they reduced the disqualification from the typical six months to three months after the earl’s lawyers said his family – in particular his young daughter – would face exceptional hardship if he was banned from the roads.

Following an application from prosecutor Jonathan Ransen on Thursday, the bench ordered that Brudenell-Bruce, who lives on the family estate in Savernake Forest, pay £330 in costs. 

Mr Irwin said his client was of limited means and his legal fees were being paid for by another, who was not named in court.