Crime boss Caroline Henry has laid bare the intense personal pain she was going through when she was clocked five times for speeding. The 52-year-old, from Giltbrook, has spoken exclusively to Nottinghamshire Live - not to evoke any sympathy - but in an emotional bid to put into context the terrible and traumatic feelings she had been coping with, and still endures, as she supports her two children as a devoted mum.
Mrs Henry, the Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner, faced a district judge at Nottingham Magistrates' Court on Monday, July 18, after pleading guilty to speeding five times - twice on Oxclose Lane, Arnold - and was hit with a hefty fine amounting to £2,450, prosecution costs, a victim surcharge of £190, and 15 penalty points on her licence.
Despite her lawyer arguing exceptional circumstances, due to her children's medical needs, she still lost her licence and has been banned from the roads for six months. After the court hearing, she was back at her desk doing the job she loves at the Arnold Lodge Police HQ, from where she opened up for the first time about the deep pain she was going through at the time of the offences.
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While some residents may have called for her resignation over what happened, she is resolute she will not resign. She was elected by the people and says she has a job to do, adding: "I love my job. I am delivering."
Going in-depth into what was happening at the time, she says tearfully: "At the time one of my children had tried to take their own life and had been sectioned in hospital. I was regularly travelling to and from the hospital and I was under very significant pressure."
She was seeking to arrange long-term accommodation for her child after the section, under the Mental Health Act, was lifted. All the time Mrs Henry, who had a clean driving licence from the age of 18, continued working.
The speeding tickets went to Mrs Henry's flat in London, a home she shares with her husband, the Conservative Broxtowe MP Darren Henry, who was hybrid working at the time of the pandemic. The tickets stacked up to five as the mail went unchecked for a time, Mrs Henry explained. And she said she was mortified when she opened them.
"Notwithstanding the trauma my family and I were going through at the time of these separate matters, I continued to work around the clock in my official capacity. This explains why one of the speeding offences was clocked at 9.30pm and I had worked until that time and had just left my office for my journey home.
"As commissioner, I am indeed proud that the Nottinghamshire Police system works so efficiently to catch those who speed even when I am the recipient of their good work. I support and respect the need for speed limits, and that is why, having been alerted to these breaches, I pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity."
She is frank when she admits, "I messed up", but, at the same time, she prides herself in being an open book, to take on board what has been said, and how people describe her as 'genuine' and 'authentic'. At the time of the offences she had been driving an old Lexus and her "old banger", a 22-year-old Mercedes.
Today she remains a loving mother to two children with complex special needs. Both by necessity remain in full-time residential care. "Indeed one of my children was sectioned last weekend after an acute event," she says.
"This background went into the fact I was speeding," she adds. "I did not speed deliberately. I was in deep pain and distracted. I assure all I have taken stock of my situation and this will not happen again.
"I have reflected on the harm that is caused by speeding drivers and I will be doing all I can - both personally and professionally - to help make Nottinghamshire roads safer."
The offences will not stop her talking about the issue of speeding. What happened has made her more aware and how easy it is to do. She wants to educate people and is determined in her mission because it is too important, even more so now.
To the court and in a statement to the press outside court, and fighting back tears, she said she was "truly sorry". The whole experience has been horrendous, she later confides.
The first speeding offence was when she was trying to sort out a suitable placement for one of her children after their release from hospital after their sectioning. Two cameras in Oxclose Lane clocked her speeding after she had worked late at the office - timed at 8.30pm and 9.30pm.
On another occasion she was one her way to get paperwork in to make sure the same child could get the right placement following discharge. She insists she was not deliberately speeding and was not even aware she had, again she accepts that is no excuse whatsoever.
"I should have been aware. I should have been concentrating," she adds. Now there are new medical problems emerging with her other autistic child, which are causing her worry. She hopes, on reflection, the speeding, will make her a better Police and Crime Commissioner. She's cracking on with the job, she says positively. The recruitment of the next Chief Constable of the county is just one important task.
Chairwoman of the Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Panel and magistrate of 10 years, Christine Goldstraw, however, said the judge had taken into consideration the underlying Henry family difficulties.
"It was a very reasonable sentencing. You could have increased the disqualification so clearly there was a little sympathy, but not a lot," she said. "She has been dealt with appropriately. She has got her just deserts, as it were.
"She is an elected officer, the decision was hers to make whether to stay or not to stay. We do not have any power at all as a panel." She added: "As far as the panel is concerned all matters are closed."
Mrs Henry, who was elected to the post in May 2021, campaigned for election using the slogan “Make Notts Safe” and promised to “reduce crime with action, not words”. On her official PCC website, she listed ensuring an “effective and efficient” police response to speeding as one of her priorities.
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