By RAY MASSEY

Last updated at 00:08 03 November 2007

A top BMW boss has been jailed for six weeks for lying to police after being clocked speeding at 101mph in a Mini.

Thomas Moser, 48, finance director of the BMW-owned Mini factory in Oxford was given three times to change his story.

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Yesterday he was jailed for perjury after claiming falsely that his 19-year-old son had been driving the car at more than twice the legal 50mph speed limit.

He is the latest in a growing number of motorists who try to illegally "swap points" to keep their licences clean or escape a ban.

Mr Moser, from Oxford, was caught shortly after 7am on May 4 by a speed-camera van on Oxford's Eastern by-pass. The legal limit on the road is 50 mph.

He was driving a BMW-owned Mini - the cult car made by the British-based but German owned firm whose finances he controlled, Banbury Magistrates' court was told.

Despite photographic evidence to the contrary, Moser, a German national, claimed his son Maximilian was driving at the time of the offence.

He continued to name his son despite three times being given the chance to change his story.

He pleaded guilty in court to making a false written statement and to the speeding charge.

Moser, who has a 20-year career with BMW and was believed to be on a six-figure salary, was sentenced to six weeks jail for perjury, and fined £1,200 for speeding.

He was ordered to pay £60 costs and was disqualified from driving for three months.

The company's top of the range Mini Cooper S has a top speed of 140mph.

Yesterday's jail sentence on a senior executive is expected to be taken as a salutary lesson to others.

A spokeswoman for BMW said last night: "We are investigating disciplinary action in this case.

"Mr Moser is the finance director of the Oxford Mini plant."

The incident tarnishes a proud record for BMW which has reinvented the iconic British-built Mini for the 21st century - and reaped a boom in sales.

BMW announced recently that the capacity of the booming Mini factory in Oxford is to be expanded to produce 260,000 cars a year - 20,000 more than the 240,000 already earmarked.

Mini has just launched a new Mini Clubman estate car, with two open doors at the back and a double opening at the side.

A Mini "off-roader" recreational vehicle is also planned, but BMW has confirmed that this will be built abroad, possibly in Austria.

The car giant has invested £100million and created 200 more jobs at the factory - taking the total workforce at Oxford to 4,500.

But with an engine plant at Hams Hall and a body pressing plant in Swindon, the total UK workforce is 6,800. The investment is on top of £280million between 2000 and 2004.

Darren McCauley, head of car insurance at Churchill, said:"People have become so dependent on their cars that they will go to great lengths to avoid a driving ban.

"Unless driving habits change, speeding will become a real threat to the modern motorist."

By contrast, England soccer legend Teddy Sheringham admitted in July nominating someone else to take speeding points for him - but escaped with a caution.

He was among a group of stars arrested for allegedly swapping speeding points to beat driving bans.

Sheringham, 41, initially denied the allegation.

But the policeman's son later accepted a caution for perverting the course of justice.

He spent an hour with police after answering bail at Chingford Police Station, East London.

Sheringham, who has been awarded an MBE, will not have a police record but details of the offence will be kept on file.

His former West Ham club-mate Bobby Zamora got cautioned for the same offence two weeks earlier.

One reason for the crackdown on 'points swapping' is a change in the nature of speed cameras.

Traditional style yellow-box 'GATSO cameras flash from the rear, so the identity of the driver is not seen.

By contrast, new forward facing digital cameras have a clear shot of the driver's face, which can be used for identification purposes.