Lady Aliai Forte – wife of millionaire luxury hotelier Sir Rocco – has again been hit with a six-month driving ban for her latest speeding offence.
The 59-year-old mother-of-three was caught on camera driving her black four-litre Audi A6 at 50mph in a 40mph zone.
She received three penalty points, which when added to the nine points already on her driving licence triggered an automatic statutory ban.
Italian-born Lady Forte, of 21 Cheyne Gardens, Chelsea, who married Sir Rocco, 79, in 1986, appeared at Lavender Hill Magistrates’ Court.
She admitted speeding along the A3 Kingston Road, near Tibbet’s Corner roundabout, Putney at 9.20am on January 9.
The court heard Lady Forte has convictions for speeding on March 8, 2022 and January 29, this year and also for using her mobile phone while driving on December 21, 2023.
The one-time fashion designer also received a six-month driving disqualification in 2020.
‘It is a terrible thing for me to be disqualified from driving,’ she told the magistrates. ‘It causes me huge problems to my life.’
She is clearly still frustrated that half the points on her licence are for using her phone.
‘I got points for an offence I don’t think I committed, talking on the phone. The phone was on my lap and six points is ridiculous.
‘I work really, really hard and do a lot of charity work.
‘I lose my driving licence for this? Doing fifty in a forty? I am always doing things, I am always in a rush.
‘Maybe I was distracted by the change of the speed limit. I am very sorry and I apologise, I don’t want to break the law.’
Insisting that losing her licence would impact her negatively, she added: ‘I am organising a big charity event for the London Symphony Orchestra and I am running an estate in Surrey.
‘I apologise because I do not want to break the law, but losing my driving licence creates a lot of problems for me.
‘I am a very safe driver and I have never had an accident in my life.’
Instead of completing a financial means form to work out her fine Lady Forte simply wrote that she had ‘sufficient funds’ to pay any amount to the court.
It is believed the Forte family are worth in excess of a quarter of a billion pounds.
‘I don’t really know what to write. My husband pays all the household expenses so you can call me a housewife. I did explain that I don’t pay bills.’
Before leaving Lady Forte cheekily asked the magistrates to make an exception and slash the statutory disqualification in half.
‘Is it possible to do three months instead of six? It causes great difficulty,’ she requested.
Bench Chairman Timothy Keay told her: ‘You pleaded guilty to this offence of speeding at 50mph on the A3 in a 40mph zone.
‘That offence adds three penalty points to your driving licence and leaves you liable to further penalty.
‘You do have an extremely poor driving record that leaves you liable to disqualification.
‘The points totting system is to punish repeat offenders and you are a repeat offender.
‘You are obviously a woman of more substantial means,’ added Mr Keay, fining her £666, with £100 costs and a £266 victim surcharge.
‘I do not have my licence because yesterday my car was broken into and it was stolen along with my credit cards, which I have cancelled,’ Lady Forte told the bench.
‘Your driving licence is no longer valid anyway,’ Mr Keay told her.
Lady Forte is the daughter of Rome neurologist Professor Giovanni Ricci and she is the mother of Irene, Lydia and Charles.
She married Sir Rocco Giovanni Forte – chairman of Rocco Forte Hotels – in February 1986 in the Aracoeli church of Rome when she was just 21.
Sir Rocco took over from his father, Charles Forte, as the CEO of the Forte Group in 1992.
In the mid-90s, the Forte Group faced a hostile takeover bid from Gerry Robinson’s conglomerate company Granada which eventually succeeded in 1995 with a £3.87 billion tender offer which left the Forte family with around £350 million in cash.
In 2001, the use of the Forte trademark was returned to the family in a move intended to quell the bitter legacy of the takeover.
Sir Rocco set up his own chain of hotels in 1996 after the merger, which he originally called RF Hotels but re-branded to The Rocco Forte Collection after the return of the Forte brand name.
He bought the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh and Brown’s Hotel in London for £51.5million.
The Rocco Forte Collection currently owns 12 hotels across Europe and Russia with plans to open three more in Sardina, Milan and Naples in the works.