Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Bankruptcy, car collisions and driving bans: The long list of Katie Price’s legal woes

The former glamour model has now been declared bankrupt for the second time

Holly Evans
Tuesday 19 March 2024 14:46 GMT
Comments
Katie Price has been declared bankrupt for a second time
Katie Price has been declared bankrupt for a second time (PA Wire)

Your support helps us to tell the story

This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.

The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.

Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.

A household name since she first began appearing as a glamour model in the pages of The Sun, Katie Price’s rise to fame has also been blighted by a number of brushes with the law.

A bankruptcy hearing this week is just one of a number of cases against the TV personality, who now owes £761,994.05 to HM Revenue & Customs.

Just days earlier, Price was fined £880 for driving without a licence or insurance after being spotted by a police officer at a petrol station.

Price, who gained notoriety on ITV reality show I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here, has often courted controversy and was first declared bankrupt in November 2019.

The reality star and former model has been declared bankrupt twice
The reality star and former model has been declared bankrupt twice (PA Archive)

In a recent court hearing, a High Court judge ruled that the 45-year-old would lose half of her monthly income from adult entertainment website OnlyFans for the next three years to help repay her debts.

Here’s a look back at her various legal woes since 2003:

Bankruptcy

In a short hearing on 18 March, the former model was declared bankrupt for a second time, after failing to respond to HMRC over her debts.

Judge Prentis said the bill “derives from self-assessments from the year 2020-2021 and from the year 2021-22” and includes income tax, VAT, surcharges and interest.

She is due to face questioning over her finances in April after a different High Court judge ruled that 40 per cent of her OnlyFans income must go towards her unpaid debts.

Katie Price currently owes HMRC over £760,000
Katie Price currently owes HMRC over £760,000 (Getty Images)

In October last year, she said she was “fed up” with being threatened with legal action and would go to prison to be “done with it all”.

Speaking to TV personality Michelle Visage on her Rule Breakers podcast, Ms Price discussed her bankruptcy and said she had recently been to court “more times than I’ve had hot dinners” and would “genuinely” not care if she was jailed.

Appearing on the Daily Mail’s Straight To The Comments! podcast, Price said that she did not find out about Monday’s ruling until she was told on the show.

When told there had been a breaking news about her, Price said: “Has it? Oh get lost… Are you actually serious, while I’m sat here? What have I done now?”

She also told the pre-recorded podcast: “I know I had court, I think it was last week or the week before. Because of what’s going on in my life, I’ve actually been signed off because… I’m dealing with serious stuff.

“There’s all different kinds of bankruptcy, I think they just use the word ‘bankruptcy’. No-one actually knows the ins and outs of everything.

“And trust me, I don’t get away with stuff either. Like, you can’t, like tax, you can’t ever run away from, you have to pay. Don’t think I sit and don’t pay stuff, because I do.”

Driving offences

No stranger to court, Ms Price’s first driving violation occurred in 2003 when she allegedly drove at a speed of 70mph in a 40mph zone. However, after police failed to arrest her within 12 weeks, she narrowly avoided a speeding charge on this occasion.

Over the following years, she accumulated a number of points on her licence after being caught speeding and using a mobile phone while driving, and was disqualified for six months in 2010.

In 2015, she was ordered to pay £1,220 after she admitted to jumping a red light in her Bentley and was handed another three penalty points.

Katie Price caught at a petrol station driving without a licence
Katie Price caught at a petrol station driving without a licence (PA Media)

In February 2018, she was handed another ban for six months and a £750 fine for speeding in a 50mph zone in West Sussex, and handed herself into police in July for driving while disqualified.

Pictures had shown her driving her grey Ford Fiesta home from Gatwick, while she told her fans on social media that she was driving as she thought her ban was over.

Just three months later, she was arrested after she was found asleep in the back seat of her pink 4x4 after it veered into a VW Golf and a hedge on a gated estate at 2am.

She spent 13 hours behind bars in south-east London during the October incident and was breath-tested. Despite this, drink-driving charges were dropped due to a lack of evidence.

In January 2019, she was given a three-month ban for driving while disqualified and was convicted in October 2019 for failing to inform police who was behind the wheel of her Range Rover during the crash in Bexley.

As a result, she was banned from driving for a further 18 months.

However, two years later she crashed her BMW car on a country road in West Sussex in the early hours of the morning while under the influence of drinks and drugs.

The TV personality had been driving to visit a nearby friend when the single-vehicle crash occurred at 6.20am, and she told officers: “I took drugs, I should not be driving, I admit it all.”

She pleaded guilty at Crawley Magistrates of drink driving, driving while disqualified and driving without insurance and was given a 16-week suspended prison sentence.

In an interview with GB News, she said: “There’s no excuse. I’m just thankful that I didn’t hurt anyone. I did hit rock bottom. I’ve tried to kill myself. I could not have got any more bottom that I did.

“But I’ve come up and am sorting myself out. There’s more to come from me, and I plan to be bigger and better.”

In a brief trial last week, she was fined again after a police officer spotted her pulling up by the pumps of a service station on 2 August, despite a medical stop being placed on her licence.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in