In trouble with the law: Katie Price, with husband Alex Reid, at the Mid Sussex Magistrates' Court in Haywards Heath todayThey were all off to Euro Disney in a massive pink horsebox.
At the wheel was glamour model Katie Price, aka Jordan, and beside her was her cage-fighter husband Alex Reid. Two friends and four ‘very excited children’ – two of the friends’ and two of Miss Price’s – were in the back.
But the trip came to a sudden end on a dual carriageway in West Sussex when two police officers thought they saw her using a mobile phone while driving.
Yesterday, at a magistrates’ court hearing, the former Page 3 model robustly denied using her pink, jewel-encrusted ‘blingy’ phone at the wheel on that February day.
Explaining why the truck may have swerved as the police patrol followed it along the A23 near Bolney, Miss Price, dressed entirely in black from her hairband to her five-inch stiletto heels, said: ‘I’m a typical woman driver. It’s a massive great lorry and I just wasn’t used to driving it.’
Her performance in the witness box – coupled with the screening of an in-car police DVD of the incident – lent the hearing a flavour of TV’s I’m A Celebrity crossed with Police, Camera, Action!’
But even the much-vaunted skills of lawyer Nick ‘Mr Loophole’ Freeman, who has successfully represented a host of stars, were not enough to get this particular celebrity out of here.
Mid Sussex magistrates found her guilty of the charge of not being in proper control of the vehicle, gave her three penalty points to add to seven already on her licence, fined her £1,000 and ordered her to pay £650 costs.
In court yesterday, Mr Reid sported virtually impenetrable sunglasses (apparently his last fight, was a particularly punishing one) while mother-of-three, Miss Price, 32, spent much of her time looking sombre and shivering.
‘I’m freezing!’ she told us. ‘I’m naturally a cold person.’
Woman driver: Katie told the court she had not been on her phone but was just getting used to her big pink horsebox‘The kids were very excitable,’ she said. ‘We were all going to Euro Disney in a big pink lorry. You couldn’t really blame them, could you? It’s quite over the top really, isn’t it?’
Re-enacting her surprise when the police car pulled alongside her, she looked over one shoulder and said: ‘I’m like this – sort of like, ooh!’
When the officer pulled her over and approached the cab, she told the court he said, ‘Oh, it’s you again – we’ve met before.’
Mr Loophole: Katie is being represented by celebrity lawyer Nick Freeman‘He’s pulled me before,’ she explained. ‘I’m always getting pulled by the police for stupid things.’
There was confusion over how many points she had on her licence. ‘Three, the last time I looked,’ she said. Mr Freeman interrupted to say it was seven. ‘Oh,’ said Miss Price. ‘Then that’s a very bad girl.’ Outside, the former Page 3 girl was involved in a scuffle with photographers and was driven away through a crowd.
Mr Freeman lodged an appeal against conviction and sentence before driving off in his Aston Martin convertible.
Katie's ride: The star is believed to have been at the wheel of her pink horsebox when she was pulled over in February
source: dailymail
