AN ELDERLY marchioness, whose aristocratic family owns around 12,000 acres of North Yorkshire, has been accused of dangerous driving that led to a four-vehicle crash.

Lady Susan Zetland, of the Zetland Estate, north of Richmond, appeared before Northallerton Magistrates Court following the collision involving her £30,000 Subaru Outback 4X4, two HGVs and another car on July 4.

The 76-year-old peer, whose family hit the headlines in 2011 when their second century Roman imperial sculpture of Leda and the Swan that had once been a garden ornament, sold for £12.2 million at auction, told the hearing she would not be entering a plea

Her husband, Lord Zetland, the elder brother of rock musician David Dundas, who wrote the score to cult film Withnail and I, and the rest of his family had believed the artwork was created in modern times and their staff regarded it as “part of the furniture”.

Mother-of-four Lady Zetland, whose family seat Aske Hall is considered one of the great 18th century houses of the North, was supported in court by her husband, the fourth Marquess of Zetland, who has helped run British horseracing for many years and founded the British Horseracing Board.

Alan Meehan, for Lady Zetland, said she had been driving across the Gilling West and Melsonby crossroads on the A66 when her car was in collision with a lorry and another car, before spinning onto the opposite carriageway, leading to a collision with another HGV.

The peer told magistrates she did not want the case to be heard before their court, where the maximum sentence for dangerous driving is six months’ prison, a £5,000 fine and disqualification from driving.

She opted for the case to be heard before a crown court, where the maximum sentence for the offence is two years’ jail, an unlimited fine, mandatory disqualification and an extended driving test.

Magistrate Scott Handley said the case could be heard before a judge and jury and Lady Zetland was told to appear at Teesside Crown Court on January 3.