Driven To Crime: True stories of wrongdoing in motor racing

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This prompted sympathetic colleagues to arrange for flowers to be delivered to the hospital only for their kindness to be repaid with the discovery that no child of that name was at the hospital. Added to this was his brazen arrogance in publicly bragging to anyone who asked about the source of his wealth at the time he was racing the McLaren F1 GTR. 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.

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. Despite this, most of the amateurs at this level were capable drivers, as they needed to be to handle such powerful race-bred machinery. In subsequent interviews with Thames Valley Police, he admitted all the charges of fraud, saying that he did it because he was ‘disillusioned with his job’ and wanted to ‘step up’. In ‘real life’, away from the race circuits, Munroe — real name James Cox — was still a very ordinary accountant, albeit with a little more seniority than in earlier years.

This book will appeal not only to motor racing enthusiasts and cognoscenti on both sides of the Atlantic but also to anyone who enjoys reading about crime.

His ambitions knew no boundaries and he acquired from the Parabolica Motorsport team a McLaren F1 GTR, a spectacular racing car that had won the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1995. Undeterred by his embarrassing lack of results and craving the limelight more than ever before, he resolved to step up into the much higher-profile British GT Championship for the 1999 season.Clearly a troubled individual, his curious mixture of insecurities, ego and stupidity had combined to form a dangerous cocktail.