Top Gear’s Richard Hammond fined for speeding in Bentley and Porsche

The former Top Gear host Richard Hammond has been fined £999 by a court after being caught speeding twice in three weeks while driving his luxury cars.The 56-year-old was in a Porsche when he broke the speed limit on 2 December last year, and was caught out again 20 days later while driving a Bentley.West Mercia police brought two prosecutions against Hammond, putting forward the speed camera images of him driving the cars in Herefordshire to prove the offences.The presenter, who hosted Top Gear with Jeremy Clarkson and James May between 2002 and 2015, before the trio launched The Grand Tour on Amazon Prime, pleaded guilty through his lawyers to two charges of speeding.At Telford magistrates court last week he was handed seven penalty points for his licence. The 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 totalling £532.A West Mercia police handout from 22 December last year shows Hammond speeding in his Bentley. Photograph: West Mercia police/PAHammond, nicknamed The Hamster by his TV co-stars, nearly died in a 320mph jet car crash in 2006 while filming Top Gear, and he and Clarkson received a three-month driving ban in France in 2013 after they were caught speeding while making an episode of the show.Documents from his court case show Hammond was caught by a police officer with a handheld speed camera just before 1pm on 2 December last year.Hammond, left, with Jeremy Clarkson, centre and James May posing for a Top Gear studio shot in 2015. Photograph: Zuma Press /AlamyHis Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo was clocked at 68mph in a 50mph limit on the A40 in Pencraig, Herefordshire.At about 11.45am on 22 December, Hammond’s 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 Hammond bought in 2012 and a £1m farm estate near Hereford, but the letters were returned marked as “addressee gone away”.They tracked him down to his £2m mansion near Abergavenny in Monmouthshire, where it was noted more than 30 vehicles are registered.Police set out in court papers that Hammond had been accused of another driving offence in August last year.Hammond was prosecuted for two offences of speeding and two further allegations that he had ignored the police letters and failed to identify himself as the guilty driver.