Top Gear star Richard Hammond is fined £999 for speeding in his Porsche and Bentley

See more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred Source Published: 04:29 EDT, 28 July 2026 | Updated: 04:29 EDT, 28 July 2026 Richard Hammond has been fined £999 after he was caught speeding twice in three weeks while driving his Porsche and Bentley. The former Top Gear host, 56, was clocked driving his Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo at 68mph in a 50mph limit on the A40 in Pencraig, Herefordshire, on December 2 last year.Then 20 days later he broke the speed limit again, this time while in his Bentley Continental GT on the A50 Rudhall Overbridge, in Herefordshire, where he was caught driving at 82mph in a 70mph limit. West Mercia Police spent weeks trying to track down the TV presenter, known as 'The Hamster' on the hit BBC show, by sending letters to his multimillion-pound portfolio of homes. He pleaded guilty through his lawyers to two charges of speeding. At Telford Magistrates' Court last week, he was handed seven penalty points on his licence.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 nearly died in a 320mph jet car crash in 2006 while filming Top Gear, and he and Jeremy 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 breaking the limit in his Porsche by a police officer with a handheld speed camera at just before 1pm on December 2 last year. Richard Hammond, 56, was caught speeding in his Porsche on the A40 in Pencraig, Herefordshire, on December 2 last year Then, 20 days later, the former Top Gear host broke the speed limit again, this time while driving his Bentley on the A50 Rudhall Overbridge, in Herefordshire Mr Hammond attends a Service of Thanksgiving for the life and work of Sir Stirling Moss at Westminster Abbey on May 8, 2024 in LondonAt around 11.45am on December 22, he was caught speeding again in his Bentley.Police sent speeding tickets to a Grade II-listed Herefordshire castle bought by Hammond in 2008 and a £1million farm estate near Hereford, but the letters were returned marked as 'addressee gone away'.Eventually they tracked him down to his £2million mansion near Abergavenny in Wales where it was noted more than 30 vehicles are currently registered.Police also 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.In a letter to the court, the presenter's solicitor pleaded guilty to the speeding charges and denied the other two offences, writing: 'He replied identifying himself as the driver. He sent the reply by First Class post. He posted the reply himself.'The police force opted to withdraw those extra charges, as Hammond was prosecuted and convicted for the speeding offences in the Single Justice Procedure – a fast-track court process which allows magistrates to sit behind closed doors to deal with low-level criminal cases.