Former Top Gear host Richard Hammond has been convicted of speeding after being caught breaking the limit twice in three weeks while driving his luxury cars.
The 56-year-old TV presenter was at the wheel of a Porsche when he exceeded the speed limit on December 2 last year, and was caught again 20 days later driving a Bentley. West Mercia Police brought two prosecutions, using speed camera images from Herefordshire to prove the offences. Court papers reveal police spent weeks sending letters to Hammond's multimillion-pound homes in a bid to track him down.
Guilty plea and fine
Hammond, who hosted Top Gear with Jeremy Clarkson and James May from 2002 to 2015 before launching The Grand Tour on Amazon Prime, pleaded guilty through his lawyers to two speeding charges. At Telford Magistrates' Court on July 22, he received seven penalty points and a £999 fine.
Magistrate Ann Minton ordered him to pay a total of £1,771, comprising two fines of £333 and £666, £240 in costs, and victim surcharges of £532.
Details of the offences
Hammond was caught by a police officer with a handheld speed camera at just before 1pm on December 2. His Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo was clocked at 68mph in a 50mph limit on the A40 in Pencraig, Herefordshire. At around 11.45am on December 22, his Bentley Continental GT was speeding at 82mph in a 70mph limit on the A50 Rudhall Overbridge in Herefordshire.
Police sent speeding tickets to a Grade II* listed Herefordshire castle bought by Hammond in 2012 and a £1 million farm estate near Hereford, but the letters were returned marked 'addressee gone away'. They eventually tracked him to his £2 million mansion near Abergavenny in Wales, where more than 30 vehicles are currently registered.
Other charges withdrawn
Police also noted that Hammond had been accused of another driving offence in August last year. He was prosecuted for two speeding offences and two further allegations of ignoring police letters and failing to identify himself as the driver. In a letter to the court, his solicitor pleaded guilty to the speeding charges and denied the other two, writing: 'He replied identifying himself as the driver. He sent the reply by First Class post. He posted the reply himself.'
The police force opted to withdraw those charges as Hammond was convicted of the speeding offences under the Single Justice Procedure, a fast-track court process for low-level criminal cases. He was among 39 defendants convicted of driving offences by Ms Milton during the July 22 session.
