Armoured & Luxury
Chauffeur Driven Cars

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars sold a record number of cars last year, breaking through the 4,000 mark for the first time in its 111-year history.

The luxury car maker sold 4,063 cars, up 12% on last year, and marking the fifth consecutive year of record sales.

Sales in the US increased by almost a third, by 40% in Europe and in the Middle East by 20%, the firm said.

Its Wraith model and strong orders for its new Ghost Series II helped drive the strong performance.

The firm said it sold more cars worth more than €200,000 (£157,000) than any of its rivals, with demand for bespoke customisation remaining high.

“A record number of customers spent personal one-on-one time with Rolls-Royce’s Bespoke design consultants commissioning their personalised vehicles,” it said.

Chief executive Torsten Muller-Otvos told the BBC’s Today programme that about 80% of its buyers were entrepreneurs and business owners, with the remainder celebrities.

He said the firm’s strong performance was helped by its emphasis on ensuring a “balanced global sales picture”, meaning overall demand remained strong.

He also said the firm was “mulling” creating a four-wheel drive SUV vehicle.

The company, which is owned by Germany’s BMW and based in West Sussex, said it had created 200 new permanent jobs over the past 18 months to meet the strong demand, employing more than 1,500 people.

A month before the start of the financial crisis, the Bank of England was apparently unaware of the impending danger, new documents reveal.

In a unique insight into its workings, the Bank has published minutes of top-secret meetings of its governing body, the Court, between 2007 and 2009.

The minutes show that the Bank did identify liquidity as a “central concern” in July 2007.

However no action was taken as a result.

The documents show that the Bank also used a series of code names for banks that were in trouble.

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) was known as “Phoenix”, and Lloyds TSB as “Lark”.

Following publication, Andrew Tyrie MP, the chairman of the Treasury Select Committee, was highly critical of some of the Court’s non-executive directors.

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The founder of a $200m (£130m) hedge fund, Thomas Gilbert Sr, has been shot dead in his flat in New York City, police say.

His son, Thomas Gilbert Jr, 30, is being questioned by police but no charges have been filed.

Mr Gilbert, 70, was the founder and president of Wainscott Capital Partners, which was founded in 2011.

He was found on Sunday in a bedroom of the flat on Beekman Place. A gun was found near his body.

Wainscott focuses on the biotech and health care industries and reportedly made a 25% return in recent years.

The younger Gilbert was handcuffed at his own apartment and brought to a local police precinct for questioning several hours after his father was found, according to local media.

Jury selection has begun in the US trial of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is accused of killing three people and injuring more than 260 in April 2013.

Mr Tsarnaev faces the possibility of the death penalty if he is convicted of detonating a pair of homemade bombs.

The attack near the marathon’s finish line was the largest on American soil since 9/11.

Mr Tsarnaev has pleaded not guilty to all 30 charges against him.

His trial is expected to last at least three months.

Jury selection alone is expected to take several weeks as Judge George O’Toole selects 12 jurors and six alternates from about 1,200 prospective jurors who have been summoned to the court in Boston.

The process could be made more complicated if potential jurors express objections to the death penalty.

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Former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell has been sentenced to two years in prison for public corruption.

Mr McDonnell, 60, was convicted on 11 charges in September, including wire fraud and receiving property based on his official duties.

Prosecutors had recommended a prison sentence of 10 years while his defence asked the judge for community service.

The six-week trial exposed the McDonnell family’s strained marriage and shaky finances.

His wife, Maureen, was also found guilty in September of eight charges. She will be sentenced in February.

The couple accepted $165,000 in gifts and loans, including a Rolex watch, designer clothing and vacations in exchange for promoting Star Scientific, a vitamin firm, and doing favours for its chief executive, Jonnie Williams.

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