THE Earl of Cardigan, David Brudenell-Bruce, has formally applied to have his recent conviction for careless driving, driving without insurance and failing to report an accident set aside, after the case was heard in his absence the morning after he had been involved in a motorbike accident in Savernake Forest.

The Earl has described the whole sequence of events in August as 'bizarre', after he told the Gazette earlier this month he would be contesting the conviction. The Earl was fined £2,126 and had six penalty points put on his licence.

The court heard Mr Brudenell-Bruce, 66, of Savernake Lodge, Savernake Forest, Marlborough had driven his BMW into a car owned by a nurse that was parked at Savernake Hospital.The hearing was told he hit a rear wheel arch of nurse Alexandra Stephen’s Seat Leon, causing £750 of damage.

This week he said: "My solicitors have now written to Salisbury Magistrates, making an application under section 142 of the Magistrates Courts Act 1988, which is an application to have the entire recent past legal process (that ended in my conviction) set aside.

“This has been a nonsense right from the start. The police knew very well that I was taken by ambulance (because it was them that called it!) to the emergency department of Swindon hospital where I was for eight hours after being knocked off my heavy motorbike by a deer in the forest, and then spending some five hours out in the forest in the night pinned under the bike.”

“Despite all that with no prosecution Witness there, and with the Defendant known to be lying in Hospital, they just pressed on regardless.”

A CPS spokesperson said:  “ An application to set aside the conviction has been received and will be considered by the Court.”