Driven To Crime: True stories of wrongdoing in motor racing

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He was remanded in custody until his sentencing and one month later was jailed for a third time, on this occasion for six years. Panic Publicity certainly did an extremely good job, one that in retrospect could be deemed to have been too effective.

However, the woefully inexperienced driver’s performance was underwhelming to say the least and he found himself consistently and hopelessly outclassed, trailing behind not only all the modified cars in his class but also most of the slower standard cars. In the story, Munroe was quoted as saying: ‘I’ve been into fast cars and racing since I was a teenager, but it’s a difficult game to get into. The reality of his life was such that by the time he was in his early 30s he was married with a young family living in suburban Wokingham, Berkshire, and working in middle management in an accounts department.Indeed, his abiding memory of the team patron was watching him leave the Silverstone paddock as pillion passenger on the back of a motorcycle and disappear into the sunset. To prepare and run the McLaren, Munroe had engaged the well-respected team AM Racing, owned and managed by Aston Martin dealer Paul Spires, an accomplished racing driver himself who was also scheduled to race the car.

Inevitably, like most youngsters with similar aspirations, there was neither the money nor the opportunity to fulfil his ambitions.

In defence of his 36-year-old client, Peter Warne told the court: ‘Munroe describes himself, or his creation, as “a monster which he could not stop”. The British GT Championship, which featured cars from the GT1 and GT2 categories, was in its seventh season and in 1999 was sponsored by Privilege Insurance.