Katie Price pleads guilty to three charges including driving under the influence

Katie Price told police “I took drugs, I should not be driving, I admit it all”, a court has heard, as she pleaded guilty to drink driving while disqualified and without insurance following a crash near her home in Sussex.

The former glamour model, 43, appeared at Crawley Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday following the collision on the B2135 near Partridge Green on Tuesday morning.

She was charged with driving while unfit to drive through drink, using a motor vehicle on a public place without third party insurance and driving while disqualified.

Price appeared in the dock before two magistrates wearing a pink jumper.

After being confronted by police at the scene, Price was heard saying “I took drugs, I should not be driving, I admit it all”, the court heard.

A drugs wipe gave a positive reading for cocaine, prosecutor Debbie Jones said.

Picture taken with consent from the Twitter feed of PC Tom Van Der Wee showing the aftermath of a single-vehicle collision on the B2135 near Partridge Green. The family of Katie Price have said they have been concerned %22for some time%22 about the TV personality's mental wellbeing after she was reportedly involved in a car collision. Issue date: Wednesday September 29, 2021.
PC Tom Van Der Wee

An image shared by police from the scene on Tuesday showed a car flipped on its side.

Officers responded to the crash at around 6.20am, where Price was arrested on suspicion of driving while above the legal limit for alcohol and drugs, and was taken to hospital.

Defence solicitor Joe Harrington said: “She has had a lot of personal problems recently.

“Currently she is in the process of bankruptcy proceedings so her house may be repossessed.

“So quite a lot going on in this lady’s life, a really difficult period,” he added.

Mr Harrington argued that the driving was a “one-off” incident.

He added: “As I understand it she had been drinking, she was lonely and she decided to go and see a friend who lived a relatively short distance away and that is when the incident happened.”

He asked magistrates to defer the sentencing for several weeks.

Appearing on ITV’s Good Morning Britain on Monday, Price said she is banned from driving until the end of the year.

Discussing her disabled son Harvey, 19, she said: “Harvey’s in Cheltenham now.

“He keeps ringing me saying, ‘Mummy I miss you, I need kisses and cuddles’, so it is quite hard because obviously I don’t get my licence back until December, so I can’t just whizz in the car down there and it’s not close.”

The two magistrates, including chair of the bench Julie Hutton, have risen to consider their decision.