EastEnders actor Jamie Borthwick left court beaming today after a judge reduced his six-month driving ban to two. The 27-year-old, who has played Jay Brown in the BBC soap for the last 15 years, is having to pay for alternative transport to take him to the BBC studios.
He is unable to take public transport in case he is recognised, his lawyer claimed. Borthwick was clocked speeding in his Mercedes at 52mph on a 30mph road in Romford, east London in May last year.
He admitted speeding and his case was heard in a closed court hearing known as a Single Justice Procedure on December 1 last year. Borthwick was then given six penalty points at Romford Magistrates’ Court on January 31.
Croydon Nightingale Court heard the actor was banned as he already had six points on his licence, so was over the maximum number of points, which is 12. He was banned from driving for six months and fined £660, and a further £166 in court costs.
Borthwick appealed his sentence today, with his lawyers explaining he takes his great aunt and uncle who are “like grandparents to him” to hospital appointments.
Alex Owen, representing Borthwick, said: “The circumstances of this offence are the road is a dual carriageway which isn’t signposted at 30mph limit but of course the presence of street lights indicates that. He was unaware of that at the time, he was wrongly under the impression it was a 50mph limit.
“It took place in the mid-afternoon and it was relatively quiet at the time. No danger was caused. Mr Borthwick is working at the moment. He is currently paying for himself to arrange transport to and from work at a considerable cost to himself.
"Having spoken to him this morning he tells me both his great uncle and great uncle’s wife - the closest thing he has to grandparents - are both ill. They are both 75. His uncle’s wife has around four hospital appointments a week mostly in London - too far for them to travel.
"His great uncle is waiting for an operation to his knee, having been a labourer for most of his life. He is driving to appointments and has been told by his doctor he should not be driving.
"His family and two sisters are all working full time or in education. They have been managing for the past month with the great uncle’s driving getting worse.
“In those circumstances because of his flexible working hours he’s the best person and available person to take them to appointments. Particularly when his uncle has the operation he won't be able to drive for some time. Mr Borthwick does attend a number of charitable appearances.
"For the most part he’s responsible for his own travel to and from those appearances and as he is not able to drive he is not able to do those. He has issues with public transport and being recognised and not all of those encounters have been favourable.”
Ms Owen said Magistrates could have imposed five penalty points, leaving the actor just under the maximum number of points on his licence. Or the Magistrates could have used discretionary powers to give Borthwick a 56-day ban instead of the six points, she told the court.
She said: “It was a reading of 52mph, if it had been a reading of 50mph it could have been given four to six points, so there’s a possibility five points could have been given to him. That would allow the points to stay on his licence so if there’s any further offending he has that hanging over him, but he would be allowed to carry on driving for the time being.“
Ms Owen invited Mr Recorder Richard Thomas and Justice Olive Murray to repeal the six-month ban and take either of the two options.
Granting the appeal, Mr Thomas said: “The effect of the imposition of the six penalty points was that he had 12 points on his licence. He had two previous convictions, one from 2018 which was three points and another from July 2021 which post-dated the incident but was on his licence by the time of conviction and sentence.
“What he asks us to is exercise our discretion, taking into account mitigation and either impose five points or disqualify him up to 56 days. With some degree of ambivalence and having carefully thought about it we are just about prepared to replace his points with a disqualification of 56 days.
“And so the sentence will be exactly the same as in the magistrates court except the sentence of six points will be amended to disqualification of 56 days.”
He added: “Mr Borthwick stop speeding”, to which Borthwick nodded.
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