Bertrand Des Pallieres, millionaire UK businessman and manager of the SPQR hedge fund, racked up 65 congestion charge penalties and dozens of parking fines on his limited edition £80,000 ($158,600) Maserati GranSport without tax. His car was towed away from a square in Knightsbridge, West London, in late May and taken to a pound by a London towing company in a bid to get him pay up. But the 39-year-old chap failed for three months to get down to the tow lot to claim it - increasing the money he owed by £25 a day - until he found out the car was about to be auctioned due to an estimated £5,000 ($9,900) bill. So, what did Mr. Des Pallieres have to say about the incident? Well, he blames it on being "too busy." No, seriously — he really does:

"The truth is I was so busy I did not have time to deal with sorting the congestion charges, paying my road tax and getting my car out of the pound.

"I have been setting up a new business and, as you can imagine, it requires all my focus. I have been running around the world raising money for my fund and setting it up.

"When I left my previous job at Deutsche Bank, I lost my PA. She had always organised all of these domestic things for me. For a while I did not have a PA but now I have one, so this will get sorted out."

Hmm, sure, blame it on your assistant — or lack thereof. [via Telegraph.co.uk]