Zac Goldsmith banned from driving for speeding seven times in just nine months
CONSERVATIVE peer Zac Goldsmith has been banned from driving for speeding seven times in nine months in his electric car.
Former environment minister Goldsmith, 49, was caught in his hybrid electric Volkswagen Golf, breaking the speed limit on seven occasions between April and December last year despite having already amassed 12 points on his licence.
District Judge Daniel Sternberg banned him from driving for a year and ordered him to pay a fine of £5,500 and court costs of £2,700. Five of the seven offences he admitted took place in London – in Chelsea, Richmond and Bayswater – while the other two were in Gloucestershire and Surrey.
In London cameras caught Goldsmith three times on Chertsey Road, Twickenham, going above the 40mph on May 31, August 3 and November 11, once at 47mph and twice at 46mph.
On April 27, along Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, he went 9mph above the 20mph limit, which he also broke on July 18 on Bayswater Road, Paddington, by travelling at 28mph. On September 30, speed cameras caught him driving at 73mph down the M4 in Gloucestershire on a stretch of road where the limit is 50mph.
Then, near Guildford on December 14 on the M25, he broke a temporary 50mph speed limit by driving at 62mph. Between May 2022 and March last year Goldsmith had received the 12 points of his licence for four speeding matters but was not disqualified.
Benjamin Waidhofer, representing Goldsmith, argued in mitigation: ‘It is to the defendant’s credit that he recognises undoubtedly his offending behaviour and the inappropriate manner of his behaviour.
‘He not only expresses through me to the court his acceptance of guilt but his remorse and anxiety to ensure he is not brought before the courts again.’
Mr Waidhofer said Goldsmith is ‘not someone who is manifestly defying the usual speed limits’.
He did not attend Westminster Magistrates’ Court yesterday for his sentencing but Mr Waidhofer said: ‘ He can afford to pay any sum the court imposes in full within 28 days.’
Sentencing him, Judge Sternberg said: ‘It is trite to say that speed limits exist to ensure the safety of all road users. Drivers who drive too fast put themselves and other road users at risk. It is also worth mentioning that drivers who drive in excess of the speed limit emit more harmful emissions, whether the vehicle has an internal combustion engine or is a hybrid electric vehicle.’
Goldsmith is the former MP for Richmond Park and unsuccessfully ran to be London mayor in 2016 before serving as a minister in Boris Johnson’s Cabinet.
He resigned from Rishi Sunak’s government in June last year, when he was serving as a minister at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, arguing that the government was ‘apathetic’ towards the environment.
In 2014 he got a driving ban for speeding three times in as many months.
‘Going too fast is risky for others’