'Doubt the camera is calibrated': viscount, 80, is banned from driving after his fourth speeding offence

From the Newshound archive · first published 8 October 2026 · last updated 9 October 2026.

David Pollock, the 3rd Viscount Hanworth, was banned from driving for six months at Westminster Magistrates' Court after clocking up 12 points on his licence across four speeding offences. The 80-year-old from Islington had been caught doing 27mph in a 20mph zone — his fourth such offence — and tried to dispute the camera's accuracy, only for the court to reveal the reading of 27.6mph had been rounded down, not up. Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring fined him £250 plus £130 costs and a £100 victim surcharge.

Pollock told the court he only drives to take his wife, who has dementia, to a clinic, and to help his daughter, who has a spinal injury.

He had planned to argue exceptional hardship to avoid the ban but dropped the case after learning he would need to return with medical evidence.

Goldspring was blunt: 'Speed is an expensive business — don't do it.'