Best-selling crime author Lynda La Plante has been disqualified from driving for six months, despite tearfully telling the court a ban would end her writing career.

The 83-year-old author and screenwriter told Lavender Hill Magistrates’ Court she needed her car to meet criminals and sources for research into her next works of fiction.

La Plante said a ban would also stop her driving to take her guard dog Theo for a walk in Roehampton Playing Fields – an emotional strain which would lead her to stop writing altogether.

She pleaded guilty on Monday to breaking the 20mph speed limit near her home in Kingston-upon-Thames five times between November 2025 and April this year.

The court heard she already had nine points on her licence, from three speeding offences in June 2023 and then June and July 2025.

She told the court she believed she would have to have the dog rehomed if she was unable to drive him to his daily walks, saying: “I think the emotional turmoil of that would truly damn my career as a writer.

“It’s very, very solitary and I work exceptionally hard and I would just stop.”

La Plante, who is best known for creating Prime Suspect’s no-nonsense Det Ch Insp Jane Tennison, admitted driving at 24mph twice, 25mph, 26mph and 27mph in the latest offences, which all happened as she was on her way to take her dog for his daily walk.

Giving evidence, La Plante said she got her dog Theo after suffering the devastation of the untimely death of another dog, Hugo.

Fighting back tears, she said she “lost it” when Hugo died and she “didn’t know what to do with [her] life”.

She added her new dog had helped her through the grieving process.

However, magistrate Mandy Lamplough told the writer she had not done enough to prove that disqualification would cause her “exceptional hardship”.

La Plante was fined £3,330 and given a six-month ban because the total points on her licence had risen to 24. In addition, she was ordered her to pay £130 costs and a £1,332 victim surcharge.

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