Helen Flanagan shared a cryptic Instagram post on Friday, days after she was banned from driving for six months.
The Coronation Street actress, 34, was handed the suspension on Wednesday at Wirral Magistrates’ Court, after her pleas the ban would cause her ‘exceptional hardship’ were dismissed.
Helen, best known for her role as Rosie Webster in the ITV soap, claimed her boyfriend Robbie Talbot was driving her £66,000 Audi Q7 when it was caught speeding twice in 17 days last June.
However, she was charged with two counts of failing to give information relating to the identification of a driver.
After her court appearance, the mother-of-three took to her Instagram to reshare a post by podcast presenter Bryony Gordon.
The post included a snap of a sunset beach landscape and featured the words ‘This too shall pass but what the f***?’
Helen Flanagan shared a cryptic Instagram post on Friday, days after she was banned from driving for six months
After her court appearance, the mother-of-three took to her Instagram to reshare a post by podcast presenter Bryony Gordon
Helen claimed she can’t afford the six-month ban because she is currently struggling financially and will not be able to afford expensive taxis to get her children to school.
However, magistrates said they were not satisfied that a ban would cause Helen, who already had six points on her licence, exceptional hardship.
They also ordered her to pay a £2,000 fine, £800 victim surcharge and £110 for prosecution costs.
The actress appeared flushed as she left the courtroom after magistrates dismissed her pleas for leniency so she could ferry her children about, take them to meet their footballer father Scott Sinclair, and travel to therapy.
She also said her isolated moorland home meant it was a 10-minute drive even to go to the shops to buy bread and milk, and that she would ‘really struggle without a car’ in the remote location.
Helen, who lives near Bolton, Greater Manchester, told the court she earned £70,000 last year – but said her income varies and that she could not afford a £10 taxi to take her son to nursery.
Prosecutor Stephen Kirk told how Helen, who already has six penalty points for speeding, failed to declare who had been driving the car when it was caught speeding at locations on Merseyside in June last year, doing 42mph in a 30mph limit and 51mph in a 40mph limit.
Magistrates gave her six more points for each offence – taking her total to 18 points, well above the 12-point threshold when magistrates normally impose a ban unless there is ‘exceptional hardship’.
Helen, best known for her role as Rosie Webster in the ITV soap, claimed her boyfriend Robbie Talbot was driving her £66,000 Audi Q7 when it was caught speeding twice in 17 days last June
Helen, best known for her role as Rosie Webster in the ITV soap, claimed her boyfriend Robbie Talbot was driving her £66,000 Audi Q7 when it was caught speeding twice in 17 days
Making her doomed plea to keep her licence, Helen said: ‘I am so sorry. I stupidly thought it was acceptable for my boyfriend to explain he was the one driving and it wasn’t me.’
Helen told the court how she is a ‘full-time’ mother to children Matilda, nine, Delilah, six, and Charlie, three, using the car to take them to nursery, school and activities.
She said: ‘My job really is being a mum at home. Their dad works away. It’s really difficult at the moment now for me to be earning money. I earn money on social media but it kind of varies what I earn.’
She added: ‘I think there might be a perception maybe that I would easily be able to afford a driver but that’s quite far from the case.’
‘I’ve got enough money in my account to pay off my tax and my VAT and basically that’s about it.’
Asked by solicitor, Patrick Boyers, how she takes her son Charlie to his nursery without a car, she said: ‘The other way to get Charlie to nursery is by Uber (taxi). That would be really expensive. I’m really struggling at the moment, financially.’
Asked by the clerk how much it cost, she said: ‘I did get an Uber from my house to the nursery this morning. It cost £10 that time.’
She also claimed her son ‘doesn’t do so well in a taxi’ and that he’s ‘much better strapped into a car where he’s safe’.
Mr Boyers then outlined how Helen has travelled to see a therapist called Liz in Birmingham since 2016.
Helen said she started going when she had post-natal depression after the birth of her oldest daughter.
She said: ‘I do drive every eight weeks or every few months, whenever I feel I’m really struggling with my mental health. She really helps me. I have terrible anxiety and I really struggle with OCD and ADHD.’
The TV personality said she ‘used to earn quite well’ but her income ‘now varies’.
Helen then explained how she depended on the car to take her children to see their father, footballer Scott, 35.
The court heard they meet at a motorway service station mid-way between her home and Scott’s home in Bath, Somerset.
She said it would be ‘impossible to get a driver because it’s too expensive and my boyfriend doesn’t have a car’.
Becoming emotional, she added it would be ‘hard to put the burden on my parents… they have a lot on, they are in their late 60s’.
Helen added her parents already faced difficulties having to fly out to see her brother, who lives in Bangkok, Thailand, and has ‘really bad mental health’.
The actress said she had a ‘really difficult’ relationship with Scott, her ex-partner of 13 years, and that it would be too difficult for Robbie to drive them.
Asked if she had spoken to Scott about whether other arrangements could be made when he saw their children, Helen said: ‘No, I haven’t. I’ve got a very difficult relationship with my ex-partner. It’s very, very draining.’
It comes as Helen claimed she can’t afford the six-month ban because she is currently struggling financially and will not be able to afford expensive taxis to get her children to school
Helen shares three children, Matilda, Delilah and Charlie, with ex-fiancé and ex-Premier League footballer Scott Sinclair (pictured together)
She said she had been ‘really, really angry’ at her boyfriend over the speeding.
Of the failure to complete the forms, for which she was found guilty through the single justice procedure in which courts deal with motoring cases behind closed doors, Helen added: ‘I’m really sorry, I was so stupid. I can’t tell you how sorry I am.’
Summarising her arguments, Mr Boyers said: ‘You are a single mother of three who, if you are not able to drive, would not be able to take your children to nursery, to see their father to maintain their relationship or be able to attend medical appointments. Is that correct?’
‘Yes’, she replied.
‘I think the perception of me (is) that I would easily be able to rely on a driver if I was banned from driving. That’s far from the case.’
She added that she has ‘enough money to pay my taxes, pay the mortgage and for a bit of tea. That’s it’.
Asked about her earnings, Helen said: ‘I’m genuinely not very good with my finances. If I was to have a fine, my accountant could have a look at my books.’
Chairman of the magistrates’ bench David Holley asked Helen if Robbie would be able to drive her car if she was banned.
She said: ‘I would feel really, really angry if my boyfriend was to take that away from me and then he’d drive my car. I don’t think that would sit well with me.’
Sentencing Helen to a six-month ban, Mr Holley said: ‘We’ve listened carefully to everything said on your behalf, we take into account the arrangements in relation to your three children, the impact your ex-partner would suffer, (the impact on) your current partner and the impact a ban would have on your mental health.’
But Mr Holley said the ‘exceptional hardship’ argument was a ‘high barrier to pass’, adding: ‘We’re not satisfied those around you would suffer exceptional hardship.’
Helen nodded when she was sentenced and offered to pay the fine in £1,000 monthly instalments. She was given six penalty points for each offence.
She appeared shocked and red-faced as she turned and left the courtroom, not acknowledging Robbie, who followed her.
The actress did not respond to press requests for comment.
