Jeremy Clarkson’s Top Gear days may be behind him now, but one of his more memorable episodes could come back to haunt him – with a possible three-year jail term.
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Three appeal judges have now ordered that the case be reactivated (via the Daily Telegraph).
Filming of a Top Gear special was abandoned past year following protests over a number plate on a Porsche which Clarkson was driving.
Upon sight of the plate irate Argentinians chased Clarkson and co-hosts James May and Richard Hammond out of the country, pelting rocks at the team as they fled.
The charges was triggered by a Falklands war veteran, who made an official complaint about the number plate change.
The furore sparked a diplomatic incident with Argentina’s ambassador Alicia Castro calling the H982 FKL plate “malicious mockery” of those who fought in the 1982 Falklands War. The locals first stormed the hotel where they were staying and threatened to kill Jeremy and later stoned the whole convoy which had a police escort. The presenter and his co-hosts flew to Buenos Aires before returning to Britain. In an attempt to avoid confrontation, the Top Gear team switched the number plate, which was seen as falsification and almost ended a full-scale criminal investigation against those involved. “We believe that the Top Gear crew changed the plates in the full knowledge that what they were doing was illegal”, he said.
A group of Falklands War veterans appealed against the closure of the case and it has now been reopened by the court of appeals in the Tierra del Fuego province.
The prosecution accuses Mr Clarkson of “falsifying, altering or suppressing the number of a legally registered object”.
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The BBC decided not to renew Clarkson’s contract after he attacked a Top Gear producer. The BBC has consistently denied suggestions the Porsche was bought for its number plate, or the plate was changed after it was purchased. He, Hammond and May recently signed a deal to star in a new motoring show on Internet streaming service Amazon Instant Video, which will broadcast next year (16).
