More problems for Sunwing trip organizer as Rolls-Royce is seized, driver's licence suspended

James William Awad, organizer of the Sunwing party plane, held a news conference in Montreal Thursday.

James William Awad, the organizer of the infamous Sunwing "party plane" to Mexico over New Year's, continued his string of encounters with the authorities this week.

Awad's Rolls-Royce was seized and towed by police on the North Shore this weekend. The problem was unpaid tickets, Awad confirmed to CTV News.

"I forgot to pay a ticket while I was on vacation," he said, adding that it was a speeding ticket.

"I guess it went to my mail and [I] haven't read my mail since what happened."

The local police force, which covers Ste-Anne-des-Plaines, Bois-des-Filion and Terrebonne, appears to have taken strong action because of a longer pattern.

"They took my car because my driver's licence was cancelled due to unpaid tickets," he said.

Awad lives in Bois-des-Filion, where he owns several mansions, at least one of which also has statues of him outside, according to media reports in January.

The police force hasn't yet responded to a request for confirmation.

Awad also got into trouble when he arrived back in Canada in January, after an unplanned three weeks in Mexico after his group's return charter flight was cancelled over their raucous behaviour on the way south. Other Canadian airlines also refused to fly the members of the trip back to Canada.

Awad ended up driving across the border in the middle of the night in a U-Haul he said he rented in New York. He was ticketed on the way for being out after Quebec's 10 p.m. curfew, which was still in force.

Despite federal authorities saying they were looking at several potential legal consequences for passengers of the trip, Awad said neither he nor his trip members have heard anything further about that.

"Not even a call from Transport Canada, nothing," he said.

Awad wrote on Twitter this week that he was planning to hire a personal assistant.