This trader made a relative value play..

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23409224-details/Hedge+fund+tycoon+abandoned+his+%C2%A380,000+supercar+in+a+pound+-+because+he+was+'too+busy'+to+collect+it/article.do

"Hedge fund tycoon abandoned his £80,000 supercar in a pound - because he was 'too busy' to collect it"

"In my defence, I would say that parking in the TfL car pound is not that expensive relative to the cost of parking in central London."


Article:


A hedge fund tycoon who ran up thousands of pounds of motoring fines abandoned his £80,000 supercar in a pound for three months - because he was too busy to collect it.

Bertrand Des Pallieres ran up 65 congestion charge penalties and dozens of parking fines and also drove without road tax.

Transport for London inspectors spent three months trying to track down the Parisian multi-millionaire.

When they towed away his Maserati Cambiocorsa from a square in Knightsbridge in May, they were certain he would come forward to pay his fines and collect his car from the pound.

But he ignored all attempts by TfL to contact him and let the fines increase at the rate of £25 a day until the Evening Standard newspaper tracked him down and warned him the car was about to be auctioned.

Rich excuse: Bertrand Des Pallieres said he had no time to reclaim his impounded Maserati Cambiocorsa

Mr Des Pallieres, 39, who owns and runs the £170 million SPQR fund, left Deutsche Bank with two colleagues in April to set up his own firm, specialising in complex investments in the debt markets.

He said: "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.

--SNIP--

"In my defence, I would say that parking in the TfL car pound is not that expensive relative to the cost of parking in central London."

Mr Des Pallieres had "no idea" his limited edition car was about to be sold. "I did not realise they could auction it," he said. " Obviously, I would be quite upset if it was sold off. It is a lovely car and I do like it, even if I do not use it very often."

A TfL source said the businessman had been their "number one target". The money he owes is thought to be about £5,000. "He had a total of 65 congestion charge fines and lots of parking tickets - and he was driving without tax," said the source.

"We thought he would pay up straight away when his car was seized but he totally ignored us." DVLA enforcement officer Bethan Beasley, who ordered the car to be towed away, said staff were "completely baffledî by the Frenchman's conduct.

"We do clamp quite a lot of high-value cars but normally people come and claim their cars very quickly," he said.

"Normally, we give people 14 days to reclaim their cars, then crush them or auction them. In this case, we were not sure how to sell the car because it was so unusual. We could not understand why he had not got in touch."

But I do have to say - DUDE - getting your car out of impound and whatnot is what your secretary is for. Idiot. Send your secretary to get it!

but he points out in the article that he was his own secretary as he was just starting his business...but he says that he now has one!

That explains it, then!

So he was in a position of possibly hundreds of thousands of pounds if he took off work to get his lower-valued car.

I've had those situations (though not involving that much money, of course).

probably similar to what Bloomberg is considering in lower Manhattan - charging all cars that enter lower Manhattan during peak hours. I know London does this to help with their severe congestion problems. I think the charge is about 8 to 10 pounds a day - quite a lot...and it is still congested! Lots of rich people in London - far more expensive city than NYC - and I pay $3K for a studio in NYC.