Paul Hollywood has hosted The Great British Bake Off for 16 seasons. He may be a celebrity chef by day, but in his spare time, Paul is a big “petrolhead.” He’s very into car racing and has a professional racing license. From 2015-2017, Paul did a stint competing in races for Aston Martin. He’s also been open about the fact that his hobby spills over into his real life. Paul once told a story about how one day, he drove so fast with his fellow GBBO judge Mary Berry in the car that she got scared and hit him with a handbag to make him slow down.
Paul may have scared Mary, but Mary’s admonishing did not scare him into slowing down. Earlier this year, Paul was caught driving over 100mph (160kph) on the UK’s M25. The excessive speed wasn’t even the worst part about Paul’s driving infraction. The police officer who pulled him over said that he was also tailgating other drivers in order to “bully” them out of the way. Paul pleaded guilty to speeding in late-April, which resulted in license penalty points and fines. According to Paul, he had a very good reason for speeding: he was trying to get home to his sick cat to take it to the vet. AOL has the details from a police officer’s description of Paul’s bad driving, but here is a summary:
Bake Off star Paul Hollywood was pulled over by police after being clocked at nearly 100mph on the M25, telling officers he was rushing his sick cat to the vet, a court has heard. The 60-year-old TV chef stands accused of tailgating cars at high speeds, allegedly to “bully” them out of the fast lane during his urgent journey.
A Surrey Police officer stated that Hollywood’s Land Rover Defender was officially recorded at 96mph, though he is believed to have reached speeds exceeding 105mph on the M26. After being stopped, Hollywood reportedly blamed his dangerous driving on the need for his unwell pet to receive immediate treatment.
At Worthing Magistrates’ Court last week, the Great British Bake Off star pleaded guilty to speeding and was sentenced to five penalty points on his licence, a £293 fine, £120 in costs, and a £117 victim surcharge.
After an intervention from his lawyers at Hickman and Rose, a second charge of driving without due care and attention was dropped by police.
“Mr Hollywood accepts he was driving too fast,” wrote Peter Csemiczky, a partner at the leading law firm. “He was rushing home to get his unwell cat to the vet. He understands this is no excuse and apologises for his actions. He understands and accepts that he will be punished.”
Court papers show the incident happened at around 3.20pm on January 9 when Hollywood’s car was spotted speeding along the M25. Pc Alexander McAlpine, from Surrey Police, trailed Hollywood in an unmarked police car and said he saw the TV star’s vehicle “repeatedly ‘bully’ other vehicles out of its way, through use of unsafe tailgating”.
The officer caught the incident on his dash camera, then pulled over the chef to challenge him for speeding and “aggressively tailgating other road users”.
The officer added in his statement: “The driver stated that the reason for their urgency and driving behaviour was transporting an unwell cat.”
[From The Independent via AOL]
After the news broke, Paul shared on Instagram that his cat, Bella, has recovered from a “severe lung issue.” From one cat owner to another, I totally get panicking about your sick furbaby and wanting to get them medical care as soon as possible. I’ve had to take a sick cat into the emergency vet a few times before, including one occasion when it was sadly obvious that we were going to have to say goodbye. It’s emotional and emotions can make us behave irrationally. That said, there is no excuse for Paul to be driving like that, sick cat or not. I don’t care how good a driver he considers himself. He still put the cat’s well-being over every other driver on the road. He could have killed someone. I am glad to hear that Bella is doing well now, though. I’m sure it was a very scary experience for Paul and his family.
Photos credit: Stephen Lock/i-Images/Avalon, Justin Ng/Avalon
He’s a great cat dad, I’d likely do the same to get to my sick pet.
Paul Hollywood has several, huge and incredibly gorgeous Maine Coon cats, who he proudly and lovingly posts about on his Facebook page. They humanize him a great deal. But even sick kitties are no excuse for driving dangerously. You can’t get kitty to the vet if you’re hospitalized yourself from crashing your car. Glad Bella is doing better.
He’s a dangerous idiot driving at that speed (the limit on UK motorways is 70mph.)
I don’t care how good a driver he is or thinks he is, that’s dicing with death for other careful drivers. As for tailgating don’t start me! For young, new drivers, drivers with children in their cars or elderly drivers someone using bullying, tailgating tactics is terrifying.
I don’t care what his “excuse” is….I have cats, dogs and other smaller mammals that I utterly LOVE, but I would never risk anyone’s life over theirs.
He’s been done for speeding before, and is clearly a reckless, thoughtless, conceited driver who should have been banned.