Celebrities and other high-profile figures often complete speed awareness courses in private, a leading motoring lawyer has claimed.
Nick Freeman, who earned the nickname Mr Loophole, after successfully getting a string of well-known figures off driving charges, said one-to-one courses were used by famous people in order to prevent other participants becoming distracted.
He said that while Suella Braverman had not broken the law, she should have been transparent about what had happened.
He told the Telegraph: “She [Suella] has not broken the law, nor has she done anything wrong. I have arranged several private courses for high-profile individuals and on occasion we have been approached by the course provider asking if we could do this.”
Mr Freeman said it was “less disruptive” to provide a one-to-one course for a well-known identity who might be the centre of attention and distract others from the subject of the course.
But he added: “It is important to remember that these courses are by Zoom, you are referred to by your first name so it is very unlikely she would be recognised anyway.
Home Secretary blundered by ‘not using a lawyer’
Ms Braveman’s mistake was “not using a lawyer to arrange it for her and asking civil servants”, said Mr Freeman.
“As a barrister she ought to know far better. If she’d had a lawyer who had known what they were doing no one would have even known about this story.”
Ms Braverman eventually opted to take the three points on her licence rather than undertake the speed awareness course.
Mr Freeman said: “What she should have done in my view is immediately disclosed the fact she had committed an offence and come clean and said ‘I am thoroughly ashamed of myself and I am going to do this course because I want to be aware of the dangers and speeding and ensure it is not going to happen again’.
“People would have admired and respected her, instead of this. It is so unnecessary. From every perspective the way she has handled it is wrong.”