A British banker, imprisoned after a fatal crash he blames on a catastrophic brake failure in his Ferrari, is launching a High Court bid to force the iconic carmaker to reveal what it knew about potential defects and when.
The Crash That Changed Everything
Robert Ebert, a multi-million-pound-a-year banking executive from London, remembers with chilling clarity the moment he believes his Ferrari 458 Spider betrayed him. On June 9, 2015, in Hong Kong, he slammed on the brakes as he approached a corner in an office tunnel. "I pressed the brake pedal as hard as I could - so hard that my back went up the backrest of the seat," he recalls. Yet, the £400,000 supercar continued to hurtle forward.
Desperately fighting for control, he avoided a concrete wall but slid into a car park entrance, where the vehicle struck and killed 53-year-old car park attendant Ku Lap-Chi. Robert's first words after the impact were: "My car failed - I had no brakes." He was later convicted of death by dangerous driving and served 14 months in a Hong Kong prison.
A Pattern of Incidents Emerges
Robert Ebert's case is not isolated. The Daily Mail can reveal similar accounts from other British Ferrari drivers. Accountant Ricardo Du Bignon says his Ferrari 458 "refused to stop" in Gloucestershire last year, forcing him to choose between crashing into a tree or risking schoolchildren. He broke his neck in the resulting impact.
In another incident, company director Tony Bohana claims he was "pressing and pressing and pressing" the brakes of his Ferrari 458 Spider approaching a roundabout near Bath in 2018 before ending up lodged in a hedge. "I told Ferrari, 'somebody is going to die, mate'," he said.
Now, Robert Ebert's lawyers have lodged a pre-action disclosure application at the High Court in London. They are seeking to establish whether Ferrari "would or should have known" about a potentially devastating braking fault in its vehicles prior to his accident.
Global Claims and Safety Recalls
Parallel allegations have surfaced in the United States, where seven former owners filed a group legal action alleging a "life-threatening defect" with Ferrari brakes. One claimant, Jeffrey Rose of Missouri, alleged he had to leap from his moving Ferrari 488 GTB as it rolled into a 20-foot deep pond behind his home.
Ferrari has strenuously denied all allegations. However, the Italian manufacturer, valued at around £60 billion, has issued several safety recalls concerning braking systems. In 2021, a US recall for certain 458 and 488 models warned of an issue that "may lead to a total loss of braking capability, and result in an accident." Further recalls followed in China, the EU, and the US.
Ferrari states these recalls related to potential brake fluid leaks and were precautionary. Regarding Robert Ebert's case, the company asserts: "This was a case of human error, not a technical fault." It maintains its expert testified at his trial that brake failure as described was "not possible," and that his car had sufficient brake fluid, making the recall issue irrelevant.
The US group action appears to have been settled out of court recently, though Ferrari refuses to comment on the details.
A Quest for Vindication
For Robert Ebert, now 58 and living in South-West London, the legal action is about more than reclaiming a career he estimates cost him tens of millions. "I have a deeply personal need to be vindicated," he says. "Everyone who doesn’t know me thinks I must have been completely reckless. I want people to know I was telling the truth all along."
Above all, he is haunted by the loss of an innocent life. "The world lost an innocent man because of a failed car," he states. Every year on the anniversary of the crash, he and his wife Kendra take time to remember Mr Ku, the car park attendant whose life was tragically cut short.
