The Duke of Marlborough has been fined £500 after driving his Hyundai at 30mph above the speed limit on an Oxfordshire road.
Charles James Spencer-Churchill – a relative of Sir Winston Churchill and Diana, Princess of Wales – was also disqualified from driving for 28 days after he admitted to speeding at 80mph in the 50mph zone in Woodstock Road, Yarnton, on October 18, 2024.
He did not attend the hearing at High Wycombe Magistrates' Court on Friday afternoon and was sentenced in his absence after his solicitor entered a guilty plea to the speeding offence on his behalf.
District Judge Kamlesh Rana told the court Spencer-Churchill had a 'clean driving record'. She also imposed a £200 surcharge fee and £300 in prosecution costs as part of the Duke's sentence.
Spencer-Churchill, 70, was charged with another count of failing to give police information relating to the identification of the driver of a Hyundai in Banbury, Oxfordshire, between November 15 and December 13, 2024. However the prosecution offered no evidence on Friday after Spencer-Churchill pleaded guilty to the speeding charge.
Spencer-Churchill's ancestral family home is the 300-year-old Blenheim Palace – Sir Winston's birthplace – in Woodstock. The 12th Duke of Marlborough, James Spencer-Churchill, has been fined £500 and is disqualified from driving for 28 days after he admitted to speeding at 80mph in the 50mph zone in Woodstock Road, Yarnton, on October 18, 2024. Blenheim Palace, located in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, is the Duke's place of residence. The Duke does not own the 18th century baroque palace and has no role in the running of the residence and vast estate.
Spencer-Churchill is a distant cousin of Princess Diana, as she was a descendant of the Spencer-Churchill line, which included the first Duke of Marlborough, John Churchill. He is also a relative of former Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who is his first cousin three times removed.
Spencer-Churchill previously spent time in jail, having been imprisoned for a month for forging prescriptions in 1995. In September 2007, he was sentenced to six months behind bars on two counts of dangerous driving and one of criminal damage. In 2022, a county court judge ordered that a £132,000 Porsche Cayenne belonging to the Duke be seized by a finance company, after payments defaulted. Spencer-Churchill was not present in court in Oxford for the application to re-possess the top of the range luxury car. Volkswagen Financial Services UK Ltd took the Duke to court for a hearing to recover the part paid-for car after it was alleged he failed to keep up payments - despite being worth £188million at the time. At the hearing, District Judge Richard Lumb ruled that the financial services firm could recover the Porsche, which had been 'wrongly kept' by the peer. He was also ordered to pay £602 in costs.
