Bradley Walsh’s son Barney has been dubbed “arrogant” after being fined by a court for speeding.
The Casualty star, 26, had allegedly been seen barrelling down the M4 at the dangerous speed of 97 miles an hour back in March of this year. The charge was launched after he was seen on March 6 passing Swindon in Wiltshire in his new Mercedes car.
Barney Walsh, who also hosts BBC show Gladiators with doting dad Bradley, had originally been due to appear before Swindon Magistrates Court on Tuesday (September 17). However, the presenter never showed up to make a plea for the charges brought against him.
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Solicitors were also not in attendance, disputing claims by officers that he was driving at 97 miles per hour. In a letter sent to prosecutors, Barney’s lawyers claimed it was more in the region of 93 and 95 miles per hours.
(Image: BBC STUDIOS)
Had Barney attended the hearing, he would have pleaded guilty to the 95 mile an hour speeding ticket. But as he failed to appear in court, the presiding magistrate Mark Baker hit out at the BBC fave for refusing to tackle the issue head on.
Speaking to the court, Mark explained: “We find this a little bit arrogant that this plea is coming from a firm representing Mr Walsh when he was summoned to appear here. But he has not appeared and nor have his representatives.
“Other people today have made great efforts to get here from considerable distances,” the judge continued. “Yet Mr Walsh seems to think that he does not need to appear.”
(Image: ITV)
It later emerged that Barney had been given the opportunity to enter his plea through the post, but even opted to forego this option as well. Mark slammed the star saying: “Some people seem to think they do not need to turn up, but if they are summonsed they are expected to.”
During the hearing, Wiltshire Police – who had showed up – claimed that Barney had been stopped after gliding past the speed camera at around 4:30pm on March 6. Prosecutor Anna Hughes alleged that the speed that police had recorded from his Mercedes was 97 miles an hour.
Presiding magistrate Baker said that the discrepancy between the claims of Barney’s speed made no difference and resulted in being in “exactly the same category” of offence. Despite this, he offered to be lenient to the TV star in his ruling against his speeding charges.
(Image: Getty Images for the NTA’s)
Typically, speeding fines of this nature are expected to land people with a £2,500 fine, but the magistrate decided to give Barney the benefit of the doubt, and reduce the fine to just £1,000. He also received an additional five penalty points on his driving licence, taking his total up to eight points.
In addition to this Barney was ordered to pay an extra £490 in fees to the court. The Essex lad now has 28 days to pay his outstanding bills to the court.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
