Aston Villa star Ross Barkley has been hit with a £1,500 court bill after he was caught speeding through west London.
The midfielder, 30, was prosecuted by the Metropolitan Police over the speeding offence in Shepherd’s Bush on January 3.
Barkley’s Audi Q8 was caught on a speed camera at 36mph in a 30mph zone on the A3220 which runs past Westfield White City shopping centre.
The Premier League footballer admitted being the driver responsible, and was prosecuted through the Single Justice Procedure last month.
A magistrate, sitting in private, ordered Barkley to pay a £1,000 fine plus £100 costs and a £400 victim surcharge. He also had three penalty points added to his driving licence.
A statement from a Met Police official, which was presented to Willesden magistrates court, said the offence happened at 8.14am on January 3, and when written to at his southwest London home Barkley “confirmedthat they were the driver at the time”.
Barkley, who signed for Villa this summer after relegation with Luton Town last season, pleaded guilty in writing and offered no mitigation.
This was not the former Everton and Chelsea ace’s first run-in with the law.
In 2013, Barkley was fined for speeding in Liverpool, and he was caught out again in 2019 on a stretch of road near to Chelsea’s Cobham training ground.
In 2022, the midfielder, who has 33 England caps, was banned from the road for six months after he was spotted using his phone at the wheel.
The Single Justice Procedure has faced criticism for its lack of transparency, as convictions are handed out behind-closed-doors instead of in open court.
Labour’s new Courts Minister Heidi Alexander told Parliament last month that the controversial process is “under review”, as she insisted that measures are already in place to protect open justice.
She said there is a protocol in place that says courts “must provide lists of both pending cases and copies of the court register to local media”.
Barkley’s case, which was dealt with in mid-July, was not on registers provided to the media, raising concerns that basic transparency measures relied on by the government are failing.
