Former Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond has been fined and given penalty points after being caught speeding twice in the space of three weeks while driving his Porsche and Bentley
Former Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond has been slapped with a £999 fine by magistrates after being nabbed speeding twice within three weeks while behind the wheel of his high-end motors.
The telly star, 56, was driving a Porsche when he exceeded the speed limit on December 2 last year, before being caught red-handed again just 20 days later while driving his Bentley.
West Mercia Police pursued two prosecutions against Hammond, presenting speed camera footage of him piloting the vehicles in Herefordshire as evidence of the violations.
Court documents also disclose how officers spent weeks dispatching correspondence to Hammond’s multi-million-pound property empire in an attempt to locate him.
The broadcaster, who fronted Top Gear alongside Jeremy Clarkson and James May from 2002 to 2015 before the trio launched The Grand Tour on Amazon Prime, admitted guilt via his legal representatives to two speeding charges.
At Telford Magistrates’ Court last week, he received seven penalty points on his driving licence.
Magistrate Ann Minton ordered him to cough up a total of £1,771, made up of two fines of £333 and £666, £240 in costs and victim surcharges totalling £532.
Hammond, dubbed The Hamster by his television colleagues, narrowly escaped death in a 320mph jet car smash in 2006 while filming Top Gear, and he and Clarkson were handed a three-month driving ban in France in 2013 after being caught speeding during the production of an episode. Court documents reveal that Hammond was caught by a police officer wielding a handheld speed camera just before 1pm on December 2 last year.
His Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo was clocked travelling at 68mph in a 50mph zone on the A40 in Pencraig, Herefordshire.
At approximately 11.45am on December 22, Hammond’s Bentley Continental GT was detected speeding at 82mph in a 70mph limit on the A50 Rudhall Overbridge in Herefordshire.
Police issued speeding tickets to a Grade II* listed castle in Herefordshire purchased by Hammond in 2012 and a £1 million farm estate near Hereford, but the letters were returned with “addressee gone away” marked on them.
Eventually, they located him at his £2 million mansion near Abergavenny in Wales, where it was noted that over 30 vehicles are currently registered.
Court papers also revealed that Hammond had been accused of another driving offence in August of the previous year.
Hammond faced prosecution for two counts of speeding and two additional charges of ignoring the police letters and failing to identify himself as the driver.
In a letter to the court, the presenter’s solicitor pleaded guilty to the speeding charges and denied the other two offences, stating: “He replied identifying himself as the driver. He sent the reply by First Class post. He posted the reply himself.”
The police force chose to drop the additional charges, as Hammond was prosecuted and found guilty for the speeding offences via the Single Justice Procedure – a streamlined court process that enables magistrates to convene privately to handle minor criminal cases.
He was among 39 defendants who were convicted of driving offences by Ms Minton during the court session on July 22.