Great British Bake Off star, Paul Hollywood, was caught speeding at almost 100 mph on the motorway
Paul Hollywood has been caught speeding as he dashed to take his cat to the vet.
The Great British Bake Off star, 60 was accused of ‘tailgating’ cars on the M25 during the rush, with his Land Rover Defender officially clocked at 96 mph. When stopped by cops, Paul claimed he was taking his “unwell cat” to the vets to get treatment.
He pleaded guilty to speeding and was given five penalty points on his licence. He was also ordered to pay a £239 fine, £120 costs and a £117 victim surcharge at Worthing Magistrates Court.
The Sun reports a second charge of driving without due care and attention was dropped by police after an intervention from Paul’s lawyers. Peter Csemiczky, a partner at Hickman and Rose, said: “Mr Hollywood accepts he was driving too fast. He was rushing home to get his unwell cat to the vet. “[Hollywood] understands this is no excuse and apologises for his actions. He understands and accepts that he will be punished.”
Court papers reportedly show Paul’s car was spotted speeding on the motorway at around 3.20pm on January 9.
PC Alexander McAlpine, from Surrey Police, trailed the Liverpudlian in an unmarked police car and claimed he saw the Paul’s vehicle “repeatedly ‘bully’ other vehicles out of its way, through use of unsafe tailgating”.
The officer added: “Whenever there was a vehicle ahead, the driver would close up to a follow distance of less than five metres which was wholly inappropriate for the conditions and speed.
“Once a vehicle moved out of the way having been tailgated until they did so, the driver would then heavily accelerate and travel well in excess of the limit until they reached the next vehicle ahead on the road, at which point they would repeat the process, to try and ‘push’ any traffic that was in front of them out of the lane, even if they were legitimately overtaking traffic travelling slower in lane three.”
The court heard Paul reached speeds of around 100mph on the M25 despite being in heavy traffic and the road being damp.
After joining the M26, he was “able to achieve higher speeds more consistently”.
PC McAlpine said: “They continued their behaviour of closing up to any vehicles ahead in their lane of travel, and then following them at an aggressively short distance, on one occasion roughly a mere two metres whilst travelling at approximately 80mph, until they moved out of the way.”
The officer added in his statement: “The driver stated that the reason for their urgency and driving behaviour was transporting an unwell cat.”
The Mirror has contacted Pauls’ rep for comment.
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