Mike Ashley and Lee Charnley pictured together during their time at Newcastle United (Image: Getty Images)placeholder image
Mike Ashley and Lee Charnley pictured together during their time at Newcastle United (Image: Getty Images) | Getty Images
Former Newcastle United managing director Lee Charnley handed driving ban after being spotted using phone at the wheel.
Newcastle United’s former managing director Lee Charnley has been banned from driving and hit in the pocket for using a mobile phone at the wheel.
He is starting a six-month disqualification under totting and must pay a total of £1,880 in court costs and other charges after admitting the offence at the second time of asking.
Charnley, 48, of Montagu Court, Gosforth, Newcastle, was caught as he drove an Audi on the A191 Kenton Road, Kenton, Newcastle, on Thursday, February 13 last year.
At a hearing at South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, November 6, he pleaded not guilty, and the case was set down for trial.
But he changed his plea on the day of trial in his absence through his solicitor David Forrester, who gave no explanation why Charnley was not at court.
Prosecutor Clare Irving asked District Judge Zoe Passfield to impose the maximum of £620 in costs for a case where a not guilty plea has been entered.
Mrs Irving said only: “It’s going to be a totting disqualification.”
Mr Forrester said Charnley, who held the powerful role at Newcastle until 2021 when owner Mike Ashley sold the club, asked that his income not be disclosed in open court.
But Mr Forrester revealed it to be over £2,000 a week net when Judge Passfield told him it must be stated.
He said: “He accepts by way of his income that he is over the threshold and is such that a maximum fine will be imposed.”
Judge Passfield imposed six penalty points, leading to disqualification under totting, with Charnley believed to already have the same number on his licence.
She fined him £1,000, reduced to £900, and ordered him to pay £620 court costs and a £360 victim surcharge, all within 56 days.
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