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By Liz HullBan: Fleetwood at courtA SENIOR lawyer was
branded a ‘disgrace to his
profession’ after being caught
speeding in his Porsche and
Mercedes sports cars seven
times in eight months.
Matt Fleetwood, 49, already
had nine points on his driving
licence for road traffic offences
when he appeared before magis-
trates in Manchester this week.
A court heard he was clocked driv-
ing his £120,000 Panamera Turbo –
which can reach speeds of up to
192mph and does 0 to 60mph in
only 3.4seconds – five times over
the 30mph limit and twice in his
£72,000 Mercedes S350 on the same
stretch of road.
On one occasion he was caught by
a speed camera 19mph over themonths and ordering him to pay a
£3,300 fine. The chairman of the
bench told Fleetwood: ‘You stand
there looking embarrassed and so
you should. You’re an absolute dis-
grace to your profession, sir.’
Peter Grogan, defending, told the
court his client, of Knutsford,
Cheshire, was ‘deeply embarrassed’
by the number of offences.
‘He has been regularly driving
along that road for some 20 years,’
Mr Grogan said. ‘The speed limit
has been 40mph for most of that
period and it changed to 30mph
about three years ago.
‘If you look at the offence times, it
is clear he is travelling to work...
doing so on autopilot, as it were –
thinking about the day ahead and
the responsibilities a man of his
position faces.’
Mr Grogan said Fleetwood had
separated from his wife and is
estranged from his 21-year-old son,
who is a student, and 23-year-old
daughter, a trainee lawyer.
Fleetwood was formerly managing
partner of multi-national firm Field-
fisher before he and a colleague
founded the Beyond Professional
Services Group in 2017. The prac-
tice specialises in corporate finance,
corporate restructuring and merg-
ers and acquisitions.‘You’re an absolute
disgrace, sir’limit. All seven offences – he was
caught at speeds of between 38mph
and 49mph – took place between
November and July last year.
Fleetwood, who until recently lived
in a £1.2million barn conversion in
Lymm, Cheshire, pleaded guilty to
the seven charges, but claimed he
had been on ‘autopilot’ as he drove
to work and had forgotten that the
limit on Princess Parkway, a main
route into Manchester, had been cut
from 40mph to 30mph.
The father-of-two also said he was
stressed because of his workload
and because his marriage had col-
lapsed, forcing him to move home.
But JPs gave Fleetwood, who is
chief executive at Manchester-based
Beyond Corporate Ltd, a dressing
down over his conduct, before ban-
ning him from the road for sixPorsche-driver
lawyer caught
speeding seven
times in just
eight months
VI Daily Mail, Wednesday, August 21, 2019