Pop Idol star Gareth Gates gets driving ban for speeding in black Range Rover Sport four times in three years

Pop Idol star Gareth Gates has been banned from driving - after being caught speeding four times in less than three years. The 40-year-old singer received a six-month ban after pleading guilty to driving over the speed limit on April 6 this year, when a speed camera clocked him doing 62mph in a 50mph zone on the M4 in Port Talbot, South Wales.

Gates was behind the wheel of his three-year-old black Range Rover Sport when the camera caught him, but had been due to fight a potential ban by claiming he would experience "exceptional hardship".

However, he withdrew the claim and emailed Cardiff Magistrates Court asking for the case to be dealt with in his absence on Thursday (November 14).

District Judge Charlotte Murphy said: "Mr Gates has nine points on his licence for three offences of speeding. He will be disqualified from driving for six months."

The star, who topped the charts with Unchained Melody, was also fined £230, which was reduced to £153 as a result of his guilty plea.

It is the second time Gates has appeared before the courts for speeding, having faced a driving ban in 2017 after again clocking up points from four speeding offences.

At the time, a court heard the fourth incident had seen police stop him near his home in Bradford, West Yorkshire, doing 47mph in a 30mph zone. But the singer was instead fined £1,493 in lieu of a ban after he told magistrates being taken off the road would leave him unable to fulfil professional, personal and charity commitments and result in a heavy financial loss.

Then, Gates told the court he was a "one-man band, driving himself to engagements with his Range Rover full to the brim with equipment, musical instruments, clothes and outfits".