'I've cried a lot' - Helen Flanagan describes week from hell after receiving driving ban
TV star Helen Flanagan has responded to her six month driving ban with an Instagram video.
In the lengthy Instagram post the former soap star, 34, said that ‘she had not had the best week’ and that, while she usually maintains a dignified silence where stories surrounding herself are concerned, she felt she needed to speak out this time.
Helen was talking about her driving ban of six months she had received last week when she appeared at Wirral Magistrates’ Court having been convicted of two counts of failing to give information relating to the identification of the driver of a vehicle when required.
The prosecution solicitor said that her Audi was caught travelling at 42mph in a 30mph zone on Scotland Road, near to the junction with Dryden Street, at 1.16pm on June 6 last year.
At 11.16am on June 25, the same vehicle was caught travelling at 51mph in a 40mph zone near to junction six of the M57.
She then claimed that her boyfriend, former footballer Robbie Talbot, had responded to the police notices in order to identify himself as the driver.
The tearful mum of three who has six previous penalty points for speeding added that she would find it incredibly difficult without a car and that she was’ really struggling at the moment financially’.
The magistrates panel rejected Flanagan's claim of exceptional hardship and banned her from driving for six months. She was also fined £2,000 and told to pay an £800 victim surcharge plus court costs of £110.
Taking to her story she said: “It was really horrible having to go to court. I’ve not had the best week.
“It was my boyfriend driving the car.
“I totally respect the law and the police and it was just a massive misunderstanding and an expensive me.
“It was stupidity and naivety that I thought my boyfriend could reply on my behalf.”
She added that she did not realise that personal stuff she had noted would be laid bare for all to see and hear and added that she had cried a lot over the way certain press had intruded and ‘twisted’ her story which had made her feel ’appalled’.
She signed off that she still had a lot to be grateful for in 2025.
Her story was met with a flurry of support by many of her followers with one telling her to keep her chin up, while another added that it was no-one’s business but hers.