A young Manchester United soccer star has got himself banned from driving after being caught speeding at more than double the limit near a school in the Manchester area.
French defender Leny Yoro, 20, received a six-month driving ban after authorities recorded his luxury Porsche SUV traveling at 72 mph in a 30-mph zone. The incident occurred in August last year in the suburb of Withington, where the road passes residential homes, a sports club, and a secondary school.
According to court documents, Yoro was driving his £170,000 Porsche Cayenne GTS along Mauldeth Road West when a speed camera captured the vehicle traveling at nearly two and a half times the posted speed limit.
The case was handled at Crewe Magistrates’ Court, where magistrates issued the six-month driving ban along with financial penalties. Yoro was fined £666 (approx. $900) and ordered to pay an additional £120 ($162 approx.) in court costs as well as a £266 ($359) victim surcharge.
Direct Disqualification for Excessive Speed
The court determined that the severity of the speeding offense justified an immediate disqualification from driving. Under normal circumstances, drivers in England accumulate penalty points on their license until they reach twelve points, which then triggers an automatic ban.
In this case, however, the court opted to impose a direct disqualification due to the excessive speed in a 30-mph zone.
Yoro did not appear in person at the hearing. Instead, the case was resolved under the single justice procedure, which allows magistrates to review written evidence and issue a decision without a full courtroom appearance.
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His lawyer, Lisa Nevitt of the firm Burton Copeland, submitted a written statement to the court acknowledging the offense and confirming that Yoro would not contest a driving ban.
In the letter, Nevitt said the footballer wished to apologize for the incident. According to the statement, Yoro told his legal team he had been rushing to take a friend to a railway station when the speeding occurred.
The letter also suggested that the player believed the section of road where the offense happened was relatively open.
“Our client would like to take this opportunity to apologize for the incident which came about as he was rushing to take a friend to the railway station,” Nevitt wrote in the statement submitted to magistrates.
She added that Yoro believed the road was wide and clear at the time, and that there was little likelihood of encountering pedestrians or other vulnerable road users.
Details of the August Offense
The offense took place just after 4 p.m. on August 28. Authorities said the speed camera recorded the vehicle as it passed through the residential stretch that includes nearby homes and community facilities.
Vehicle registration records show the Cayenne was only registered in August, shortly before the speeding violation occurred.
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The French center back had initially been charged with two offenses. The first was speeding, and the second was failing to identify the driver of the vehicle when police contacted the registered owner.
Court documents revealed that requests for driver information sent by Greater Manchester Police to Yoro’s Cheshire home went unanswered.
However, with assistance from a Manchester United official, Yoro later submitted an online guilty plea to both charges.
Prosecutors eventually withdrew the charge relating to failure to identify the driver, leaving the speeding offense as the sole conviction in the case.
A Costly Lesson for Rising Star
The young defender joined Manchester United in July 2024 in a deal reportedly worth £52.2 million (approx. $70.5 million) and has made more than 20 appearances for the club this season.
Court records also show Yoro’s case was part of a much larger wave of traffic prosecutions. During the same week, more than 7,000 motorists across England and Wales were prosecuted for speeding offenses, with magistrates issuing fines totaling more than £20,000 (around $27,000) and disqualifying 115 drivers.
For Yoro, the ruling means six months off the road as one of soccer’s rising defensive talents learns an early lesson about speed limits and the consequences of ignoring them.
Source: Daily Mail