Judge
Piers Morgan said today he deserved the Britain’s Got Talent style ‘red buzzer’ from the courts after being clocked speeding following a school show.
A speed camera caught the 45-year-old driving at 51mph in a 30mph zone in Preston Road, Brighton, East Sussex, on November 13 last year, Sussex Police said.
He was convicted at Brighton Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday after pleading guilty by post.
Morgan, who was listed under his full name, Piers Pughe-Morgan, was fined £666, had six points added to his licence and was told to pay £58 costs, a court official said.
He exceeded the speed limit after judging a charity talent contest at independent, all-girls Roedean School in Brighton, alongside newsreader Katie Derham.
Today he made light of the case, saying his driving skills would not have got him “past the first round”.
He said in a statement: ‘I was judging a charity show at Roedean School called Roedean’s Got Talent.’
‘Unfortunately, my driving skills afterwards wouldn’t have got me past the first round and I thoroughly deserve a red buzzer from the courts.’
The offence happened less than 20 miles from Newick, the East Sussex village where Morgan grew up and still maintains close links.
A Sussex Police spokesman said: ‘The offence was detected by a fixed speed camera, and the vehicle he was driving was doing 51mph in a 30mph zone, above our threshold for issuing a fixed penalty notice.’
It emerged this week that Morgan is in talks to make a chat show in the US .
The former Daily Mirror and News of the World editor, who has interviewed the likes of Simon Cowell and Gordon Brown on his ITV1 show Life Stories, is being tipped as the next Barbara Walters – one of the most famous interviewers in the US.
