Police chased Richard Hammond to three £1m homes court hears

The presenter worked with Oxfordshire farmer Jeremy Clarkson and James May on the BBC’s Top Gear and, latterly, Prime Video’s The Grand Tour for 22 years before calling time in 2024.

Mr Hammond was also in his co-star's county last summer when he visited Woodstock for Salon Privé, which was hosted at Blenheim Palace.

The 56-year-old was at the wheel of a Porsche when he broke the speed limit on December 2 last year, and he was caught out again just 20 days later while driving a Bentley.

West Mercia Police brought two prosecutions against Mr Hammond, putting forward the speed camera images of him driving the cars in Herefordshire to prove the offences.

Court papers also reveal how police spent weeks sending letters to Mr Hammond’s multimillion-pound portfolio of homes in a bid to track him down.

The presenter 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.

Documents from his court case show Mr Hammond was caught out 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.

At around 11.45am on December 22, Mr Hammond’s Bentley Continental GT was speeding at 82mph in a 70mph limit on the A50 Rudhall Overbridge in Herefordshire.

Police chased up the 56-year-old with speeding tickets, sending these to three £1 million or higher properties associated with the TV presenter.

These included a Grade II* listed Herefordshire castle bought by Mr Hammond in 2012, and a £1 million farm estate near Hereford, but the letters were returned marked as “addressee gone away”.

Eventually they tracked him down to his £2 million mansion near Abergavenny in Wales, where it was noted more than 30 vehicles are currently registered.

Police also set out in court papers that Mr Hammond had been accused of another driving offence in August last year.

Mr 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 Mr 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.

He was among 39 defendants who were convicted of driving offences by Ms Minton during the court session on July 22.