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A court has heard how Paul Hollywood was pulled over by police after speeding at nearly 100mph while rushing his poorly cat to the vet. The Bake Off star stands accused of tailgating vehicles at high speeds on the M25 to "bully" them out of the fast lane.

A Surrey Police officer stated that the celebrity chef's Land Rover Defender was officially clocked at 96mph, though he is believed to have reached speeds in excess of 105mph upon joining the M26. Hollywood attributed his behaviour to a desperate desire to get his ailing cat to the vet for treatment. At Worthing Magistrates' Court last week, Hollywood pleaded guilty to speeding and was handed five penalty points on his licence, a £293 fine, £120 in costs, and a £117 victim surcharge. Following intervention from his solicitors at Hickman and Rose, a second charge of driving without due care and attention was dropped by police.

Peter Csemiczky, a partner at the prominent law firm, wrote: "Mr Hollywood accepts he was driving too fast. He was rushing home to get his unwell cat to the vet. He understands this is no excuse and apologises for his actions. He understands and accepts that he will be punished," reports the Liverpool Echo.

Court documents reveal the incident took place on January 9. Officer Alexander McAlpine, from Surrey Police, followed Hollywood in an unmarked police vehicle and reported witnessing his car "repeatedly bully" other vehicles out of its path.

Mr Alpine said: "Whenever there was a vehicle ahead, the driver would close up to a follow distance of less than five metres which was wholly inappropriate for the conditions and speed.

"Once a vehicle moved out of the way having been tailgated until they did so, the driver would then heavily accelerate and travel well in excess of the limit until they reached the next vehicle ahead on the road, at which point they would repeat the process, to try and 'push' any traffic that was in front of them out of the lane, even if they were legitimately overtaking traffic travelling slower in lane three."

Mr McAlpine continued: "They continued their behaviour of closing up to any vehicles ahead in their lane of travel, and then following them at an aggressively short distance, on one occasion roughly a mere two metres whilst travelling at approximately 80mph, until they moved out of the way."

The officer recorded the incident on his dashboard camera before pulling over the chef to confront him over speeding and "aggressively" tailgating fellow motorists.

The officer added in his statement: "The driver stated that the reason for their urgency and driving behaviour was transporting an unwell cat."

Court documents reveal Hollywood had no penalty points on his licence when he was stopped by the police officer in January. He pleaded guilty in writing to the speeding offence and was convicted and sentenced during a private Single Justice Procedure hearing, without being required to appear in court. Hollywood entered a not guilty plea to the charge of driving without due care and attention, and the allegation was subsequently withdrawn by the police force.