Best-selling crime author Lynda La Plante has been disqualified from driving for six months - after tearfully telling a court a ban would end her career.
La Plante, 83, pleaded guilty on Monday to breaking the 20mph speed limit near her home in Kingston-upon-Thames five times between November 2025 and April this year.
La Plante created hit robbery TV series Widows in the 1980s and created and wrote the TV series Prime Suspect. She was awarded a CBE in 2008 for services to literature, drama and charity.
On Monday, she admitted to driving at 24mph twice, 25mph, 26mph, and 27mph in the zone. On all occasions, the offences happened as she took her 18-month-old guard dog Theo for his daily walk.
Lavender Hill Magistrates' Court heard she already has nine points on her licence, from three speeding offences in June 2023, and June and July 2025.
During the hearing, La Plante said she needed her car to meet criminals and sources for research into her next works of fiction.
She also said she would not be able to take Theo for a walk in Roehampton playing fields, leading her to claim she would stop writing and have to get the dog rehomed.
"I think the emotional turmoil of that would truly damn my career as a writer," she said. "It's very, very solitary, and I work exceptionally hard, and I would just stop."
La Plante also told the court she would wind up her writing company if banned, putting four staff members out of work, while her lawyer Nick Freeman said driving is a "vital part of who she is".
Magistrate Mandy Lamplough told the writer she had not done enough to prove that disqualification would cause her "exceptional hardship".
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The magistrates imposed fines totalling £3,330 on La Plante, handed her a six-month ban as her points total rose to 24, and ordered her to pay £130 costs and a £1,332 victim surcharge.
Ahead of her court hearing, La Plante complained about "very confusing" road signs on the A308 in Kingston-upon-Thames, and Mr Freeman suggested she had inadvertently broken the speed limit while concentrating on driving safely.
(c) Sky News 2026: Best-selling crime author Lynda La Plante banned from driving for six months aft
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