Celebrity offenders fuel boom in private speed awareness courses

The growing number of celebrities and public figures caught up in a recent surge in speeding fines, convictions and driving bans has led to a boom in requests for private, one-to-one “driver awareness courses”.

Actor Eddie Redmayne is the latest to come to grief, receiving a hefty £1,530 court bill and penalty points last week for driving eight miles over the 20mph speed limit in Kensington, London, last October. Since then he has been stuck in a legal traffic jam behind comedian Mark Lamarr, actors Emma Watson and Zoë Wanamaker, and Gladiators host Barney Walsh, who have all recently received driving bans.

“This is a real boom period,” said Nick Freeman, a lawyer who specialises in driving prosecutions and who has represented David Beckham and Jeremy Clarkson. “There are now a lot of very stressed people, famous or not, who have never been in trouble with the law before.”

Driving offences in England and Wales have reached record levels, with 2.9m recorded in 2024, a 10% rise over a year. Driving above the limit accounted for around 86% of these offences. Many have also fallen foul of tighter restrictions in England and Wales introduced earlier this year, said Freeman, and the wider use of radar-based cameras and smart technology.

Freeman, who is professionally known as “Mr Loophole”, said it is now common for firms to be asked to set up a private speed awareness course for their highest-profile clients. “They want to protect their brand and their image and we work hard to do that.”

However, private courses can’t simply be summoned with large amounts of cash. They cost the same, and there’s no guarantee providers will say yes. “It is not a common thing, and it is often the course providers who want to set it up when the offender is very famous,” he said. “The people running the course do not want others to be distracted.”

Singer James Blunt wrote on social media in 2023 of the humiliation of attending a virtual speed awareness course. “The instructor asked people if they could think of ways to keep calm while driving. Someone suggested listening to James Blunt, and everyone pissed themselves,” he recalled.

More drivers are also repeat offending after attending a speed awareness course. They then face a minimum £100 fine and increased insurance premiums. A more stringent penalty system was introduced last August, but there had already been a 32% rise in the number of speeding points doled out since 2022.

“Penalty points are more of a deterrent than fines for many of wealthier clients,” Freeman said. “They don’t really bother about fines, but a ban hangs over your head like a sword of Damocles if you have nine points on your licence. And if you are a celebrity, it’s hard to argue ‘exceptional hardship’. The judge will ask what your income is and whether you can afford to hire a driver. If you are a prominent footballer, you’ll also be asked why the club can’t help you.”

Photograph by Laurence Cendrowicz / Everett Collection