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LOS ANGELES - Weeks after celebrity heiress Paris Hilton's driving privileges were suspended for drunken driving, police have taken away the US$190,000 blue Bentley she bought herself for Christmas.
The 26-year-old socialite and reality TV star was pulled over on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood at 11pm on Tuesday for driving without headlights, and her luxury car was impounded when police realized she was driving on a suspended license, a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department spokesman said.
The incident comes about five weeks after Hilton was sentenced to three years probation after pleading no contest to alcohol-related reckless driving stemming from a September arrest in Hollywood.
"Miss Paris Hilton was driving the vehicle. After investigating her license status it was determined that she was driving on a suspended license," sheriff's spokesman Oscar Butao said.
"Miss Hilton was cited for a suspended license violation and released in the field. Her 2007 blue Bentley Continental GTC was impounded," Butao said.
He said Hilton was alone at the time and was not tested for alcohol consumption. She will appear in court for driving on a suspended license but no date had yet been fixed.
Hilton's spokesman Elliot Mintz said his client told him she was stopped while on her way to a store to pick up some DVDs after doing a photo shoot at her home.
He said she apparently had forgotten to turn on her headlights when she pulled out of the well-lighted parking garage. Hilton bought the car for herself around Christmas, Mintz said.
It is the second time in a month that Hilton has found herself in trouble over documentation.
Earlier this month she was stopped by German border guards as she was heading to Vienna to attend the city's Opera Ball on an expired passport.
But the heiress was allowed to go after the US embassy vouched for her when contacted by German authorities.
- REUTERS
