Michael Ball banned from driving for six months after caught speeding in Porsche
Tristan Kirk6 December 2023 at 11:51 am
West End star Michael Ball has been banned from driving for six months after being caught speeding in his Porsche twice in the space of five months. The 61-year-old singer and host of The Michael Ball Show on BBC Radio 2 was prosecuted for breaking the 30mph speed limit on the A40. A speed camera caught Ball's GBP60,000 Porsche Macan on December 4 last year.
He broke the limit again on the exact same stretch of road in Notting Hill on April 30 this year, when the camera clocked his Porsche at 35mph. Ball, who was awarded an OBE for services for musical theatre, made his West End debut in a 1985 production of Les Miserables. He has taken starring roles in shows including Phantom of the Opera, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Aspects of Love and Hairspray during a glittering career, which has also included a role in Coronation Street and second place for the UK in the 1992 Eurovision Song Contest.
The singer, presenter and actor recorded a duet of You'll Never Walk Alone in April 2020 with 99-year-old Captain Tom Moore to raise money for the NHS during the Covid pandemic. It was Ball's first British number one single, and made Captain Tom the oldest person ever to top the charts. Ball was prosecuted initially through the controversial single justice procedure over the speeding offences, after being written to by police at the home in Barnes he shares with his TV presenter wife Cathy McGowan.
He pleaded guilty to one offence and was found guilty of the second, with both cases then placed before Lavender Hill magistrates' court to be sentenced.
Ball, who already had penalty points on his licence, was given six extra points for the speeding offences, leading to an automatic six-month driving ban at the hearing this month.
The singer was ordered to pay two GBP350 fines, a GBP280 victim surcharge, and GBP100 in costs.