Kirsty Gallacher tried to escape a driving ban for speeding by telling a judge that she could not afford taxis and did not live near ‘reliable’ public transport.
But the Daily Mail can reveal that the TV presenter – who earns £150,000 a year – lives in a £1.5million rural home, which is just a 15-minute walk from a bus stop.
The mother-of-two called herself ‘broken’ and fought back tears and blasted a judge for showing no empathy as she was banned from driving for six months.
She appealed the driving ban, stating that she relies upon driving to take care of her two teenage sons, to access medical care for a benign brain tumour, and for work.
Gallacher told the court that, despite having £80,000 in savings, she couldn’t afford to pay for a taxi, or a private driver as she is the sole financial provider for her two children.
But the Daily Mail found today that her countryside home is just a mile from a bus stop next to a gastropub.
From there, a regular bus service takes just over 20 minutes to reach train stations at Bracknell and Maidenhead which provide regular rail links to London.
Trains from her nearest station of Maidenhead take as little as 17 minutes to reach Paddington in central London with standard tickets costing £16.40. The same route is also serviced by Elizabeth Line trains.
Kirsty Gallacher appeared at High Wycombe magistrates’ court this week where she appealed a driving ban on the grounds that there was no reliable public transport near her home
The presenter – seen here covering her head as she walked out of court after she was banned from driving for six months – pleaded with the judge to keep her licence
But the Daily Mail has learned that the nearest bus stop to Kirsty’s home is just a 15 minute walk from her £1.5million home on the outskirts of Bracknell, Berkshire
The celebrity – who earns £150,000 a year and who has £80,000 in savings – had totted up previous points on her licence – near her home
Indeed, according to the glossy estate agents’ brochure, her beautiful barn conversion is ‘well placed’ for access to London’s Heathrow Airport while the station in Bracknell, Berks, offers frequent services to London Waterloo.
Ascot, Maidenhead and Windsor provide ‘an extensive range of shopping, leisure and sporting amenities’ while ‘extensive schooling’, including Eton College, are nearby, it says.
Buses calling at Gallacher’s local stop also transport passengers to shops and supermarkets, nearby towns and even the main local NHS hospital, with her local Tesco being just a four-minute ride away.
Gallacher, 49, made her plea for leniency after she admitted speeding at 35mph in a 30mph zone when she appeared at High Wycombe magistrates’ court, Berkshire.
She faced being automatically banned under the totting up procedure due to already having nine points on her licence, for three previous speeding offences.
She argued that she should be allowed to keep her licence, but District Judge Arvind Sharma dismissed her argument, and banned her from driving for six months, and fined her a total of £1,044.
He told her: ‘I accept that things will be harder for you, but those are all manageable.
‘I don’t accept that your son needs a lift every morning, and you have adequate money saved up that you can use taxis for your children and yourself.’
Despite saying that she earned a six-figure sum as a presenter for Gold Radio for the last 11 months, and having significant savings, Gallacher stated in court that she could not afford to pay for taxis or a private driver as she was the sole financial provider for her children.
Companies House records, however, state that her company KJG Media Ltd is in a relatively health position with assets of £152,295 at the end of March last year, taking into account its liabilities due in the following 12 months, according to its latest accounts.
Gallacher claimed in court that public transport was not reliable enough near her rural home for her youngest son to get to school or to extracurricular activities.
The former Sky Sports News and GB News presenter stated that she needed to drive him to golf, following in the footsteps of her retired professional golfer father Bernard Gallacher who captained the European team to victory in the Ryder Cup in 1995.
She also highlighted her own health issues, caused by a benign brain tumour which has left her deaf in one ear and suffering tinnitus as a result.
Gallacher said that she had to attend medical appointments in Oxford following recent radiotherapy.
Gallacher highlighted her health issues in court and said that she had a benign brain tumour which has left her deaf in one ear and suffering tinnitus as a result
The presenter, who appeared in court to plead guilty to a single charge of speeding, shared that the tumour is ‘growing very fast’ and she’s undergoing radiotherapy
She was caught speeding on April 1 this year in Maidens Green, Berkshire, by what was described in court documents as ‘manned enforcement equipment’ only a few miles from her home.
At the time of her offence, she had nine points on her licence for three previous speeding offences on September 9, 2023, August 3, 2024 and August 9, 2024.
Gallacher told the court: ‘I am not a precious person, I am very humble. I am not saying that I can’t use public transport. We have all now and again done that.’
She told the judge: ‘I have a brain tumour, an acoustic neuroma. It is benign, but it’s growing very fast.
‘They have monitored it for the last three years. I am now doing radiotherapy. We don’t know if the radiotherapy is going to work, if it will shrink (the tumour) or not. It’s a bit of a suck it and see situation.’
Gallacher also referenced how she had been left ‘shocked and afraid’ last month after being attacked on the street in London.
The radio host first revealed her attack to her 400,000 Instagram followers, telling them that a man dressed ‘all in black’ had ‘kicked me like a football’ from behind.
But she revealed in court for the first time today that the police believe she was a victim of a targeted attack.
She fought back tears as she told the judge: ‘I was walking to my car. It’s a 12-minute walk. I was walking the same way I always walk. There were lots of people around.
‘A gentleman was walking at me on the street. I moved out of the way, I thought it was strange.
‘He brushed past me, turned around and kicked me very hard. He assaulted me in the street.
‘The police now believe I was targeted, that this was targeted. The police have all the CCTV footage and an image of him.’
She added: ‘I’m broken at the moment, from everything. I’m broken from the health issues, exacerbated by the assault. I’m very sad to be standing here and I’m sorry.
‘I feel a bit broken. In general, my confidence is terrible. I’m second-guessing everyone behind me. I’m seeing someone for my anxiety.
‘I’m aware of London’s risks or any big city’s risk, but I didn’t expect this to happen. I’m a one-man band. It is the way it is. I’m as careful as I can be… I don’t throw my money around.
‘I’m a mum who has worked very hard to this point, to make sure my children’s needs are met.’
Ms Sophia Dower, representing Gallacher, also described her in court as ‘the epitome of a one-woman-band’, due to her responsibilities for her sons Oscar, 18, and Jude, 15, from her marriage to former rugby star Paul Sampson who played three times for England on the wing. The couple married in 2010 and divorced five years later.
Companies House records show that Samspon has been involved in a number of ‘start up’ businesses, and has been a director of a number of firms which have been dissolved.
Gallacher spoke to the Daily Mail exclusively after the hearing today when she described her driving ban as a ‘shock’, and even criticised the judge for imposing the penalty.
She said outside court: ‘There’s no empathy. I’m just an ordinary mum with plates spinning, I do everything. With my health as well, it’s going to be very difficult.’
Gallacher has been banned from the roads for six months for going at 35mph in a 30mph zone. She had three previous speeding offences on her record
Gallacher was previously banned from driving for two years in September 2017, and ordered to do 100 hours of unpaid community work after she admitted drink-driving.
Slough Magistrates Court heard how police were called to reports of car being driven erratically in Eton, Berkshire, the previous month.
A breath test revealed she was more than three times the legal limit with 106 mcgs of alcohol in 100 mls of breath. The legal limit is 35mcgs
The court was told she was pulled over in her BMW X4 when she was on her way to pick up her children to visit Windsor Castle after drinking the night before.
Her defence solicitor claimed that she rarely drank and had taken a taxi home the previous night before picking up her car in the morning. Her children were not with her.
Gallacher was also ordered to pay £170 in court costs and surcharges for the drink-driving offence.
Edinburgh-born Gallacher began her career in 1996, working as a production assistant and later a research assistant on Sky Sports.
She got her presenting break on Sky Sports News in 1998, and went on to be associated with many other sports shows such as 90 Minutes, Soccer Extra, Kirsty and Phil on BBC Radio 5 Live and Soccer AM.
Gallacher also hosted the Sky One show Kirsty’s Home Videos from 2000 until 2004, the morning show RI:SE in 2002, and Simply the Best in 2004.
She also presented the All Star Cup on Sky1 in 2005 and on ITV in 2006, and has made guest appearances on They Think It’s All Over and A Question of Sport.
Gallacher also won the third series of the popular Channel 4 reality television series The Games in 2005, and returned to co-host the show the following year with Jamie Theakston.
She co-presented the BBC reality TV show Only Fools on Horses in 2006, and presented the new version of Gladiators on Sky One alongside Ian Wright in 2008.
Gallacher returned to Sky Sports News from 2011 to 2018, and co-presented The Great British Breakfast on the news channel GB News in 2021.
She revealed on Instagram how she was attacked at around 7pm on October 28 as she walked back to her car in the dark after finishing work.
Her post stated: ‘Last night I was physically assaulted in the streets of central London walking from work to my car, the walk I do most nights. The streets are well lit. There were people around.
‘I was walking on the pavement, and I noticed this guy, all in black, covered up, actually, just walking at me. And I’m always vigilant. And he was just walking towards me, and so I moved out of the way, and then he brushed past me.
‘He turned around, and he kicked me like he was kicking a football. He kicked me in the middle of a street at about seven o’clock last night, in front of people, and I turned around and he scarpered.
‘I’m still shocked now, and I have the bruises to prove I’m afraid. I can’t quite believe what happened. I was not being provocative in any way. I was just going about my business as you do. I was just walking to my car to go back home to my family.’
Gallacher also said she found it ‘hugely disappointing’ as a nearby security guard was ‘absolutely useless’ and ‘didn’t do anything’, but she thanked a woman who came forward to help her.
She said: ‘I luckily had some witnesses, some lovely girls saw it and came to my aid. There was a security guard on a door nearby who was absolutely useless and didn’t do anything, which was hugely disappointing, and I just there, and I couldn’t actually believe that someone, a stranger, has just decided, for whatever reason, whether he’s a got a problem with women, whether he’s just an opportunist.
‘He decided he did not like me, and he just thought, Now, give you the boot. And that is not okay. It’s not okay, it’s not okay.’
Gallacher said she decided to speak out about the attack because she believed such violence was becoming common place in London.
She added: ‘It’s really sad that that is what’s going on on the streets of London, and that is very real. And we all hear about it, don’t we all hear like, Oh yeah, you know, be careful. Don’t have your phone out.
Kirsty’s found love in her personal life following her divorce with boyfriend Darren Clayton
‘And people being sadly, you know, mugged or worse, you know, awful, awful things going on, and you always think it’s not going to happen to me.
‘And that was me. I thought, I’m very vigilant. I’m very careful. I’m very careful of where, how I’m walking, and, you know, make sure that I don’t have my phone in my hand, that I have, like, a cross body bag, and I’m not holding anything out, but actually, I couldn’t have done more to protect myself. And still that happened to me.
‘Someone decided to just give me a good kicking in the street, and I really wanted to share it with you, because this is happening all the time, and it’s not good, and it’s not all right, and I want you to really be careful and vigilant and look after yourselves and look after those around you.
‘And I’m very grateful to those lovely girls. Hopefully they’ll see this, they might see this, but thank you, because you’re amazing.
‘Because I didn’t know what to do in that moment, I was shocked. I’ve never experienced anything like it, and I just wanted to share it, and I really just wanted to say, stay safe. You might not think it’s going to happen to you, but it could be you.’
