Police spent weeks sending letters to Richard Hammond's multimillion-pound portfolio of homes before finally tracking the former Top Gear host to a £2 million mansion near Abergavenny, where more than 30 vehicles are currently registered.
The 56-year-old, nicknamed The Hamster by his TV co-stars, was caught speeding twice in less than a month — first in a Porsche, then in a Bentley. West Mercia Police brought two prosecutions, using speed camera images of the cars in Herefordshire to prove the offences.
“Former Top Gear host Richard Hammond fined £999 after police track him to Welsh mansion following two speeding offences.”
Court papers reveal that speeding tickets were sent 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". Eventually officers tracked him down to his Welsh property.
Hammond was caught by a police officer with a handheld speed camera just before 1pm on December 2 last year. His Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo was clocked at 68mph in a 50mph limit on the A40 in Pencraig, Herefordshire. Twenty days later, at around 11.45am on December 22, his Bentley Continental GT was caught at 82mph in a 70mph limit on the A50 Rudhall Overbridge in Herefordshire.
The presenter, who hosted Top Gear with Jeremy Clarkson and James May between 2002 and 2015 before the trio launched The Grand Tour, pleaded guilty through his lawyers to two charges of speeding. At Telford Magistrates' Court last week, he was handed seven penalty points.
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.
Hammond also faced two further allegations that he had ignored the police letters and failed to identify himself as the guilty driver. Police had additionally accused him of another driving offence in August last year — though it remains unclear whether that case has been resolved.
The former host 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.