This week in court, Helen Flanagan asked the magistrates not to prohibit her from driving, highlighting the isolated location of her home, which she described as being situated ‘in the middle of the moors’.
However, MailOnline has discovered that the former Coronation Street star resides just a few steps away from a bus stop in a charming village outside Bolton in Greater Manchester.
During the court proceedings, Flanagan also argued that there were no shops nearby and that it took a ten-minute drive just to buy essentials such as bread or milk. Contrary to her claim, the owners of a farm shop located a mere ten-minute walk away stated that their store was adequately stocked, and Flanagan had never visited.
In addition, the actress told Wirral Magistrates’ Court in Merseyside on Wednesday that she had ‘enough money to pay my taxes, pay the mortgage and for a bit of tea’.
But a Land Registry document seen by MailOnline for her address given in court shows the six-bedroom detached home – estimated to be worth nearly £1million – is registered outright in her ex-partner Scott Sinclair’s name after he bought it in 2021.
Flanagan claimed in court that she is ‘really struggling financially’ and cannot even afford a £10 taxi to take her son to nursery. But despite the 34-year-old mother-of-three speaking of her money woes, she was banned from driving for six months.
The actress said her ex-footballer boyfriend Robbie Talbot was driving her £66,000 Audi Q7 when it was caught speeding twice in 17 days in Merseyside last June.
Flanagan, who played Rosie Webster in Corrie and is now a social media influencer, faced two charges of failing to give information relating to a driver’s identification.
But magistrates said they were not satisfied a ban would cause exceptional hardship to Flanagan, who already had six points on her licence. They also ordered the actress to pay a £2,000 fine, a £800 victim surcharge and £110 for prosecution costs.
Flanagan was asked by her lawyer: ‘How easy is it to reach public transport?’ She then answered: ‘I find it very difficult. I would really struggle without a car anyway.’
However, there is a bus stop around the corner from her detached home, with bus services which run five times a day between her village and nearby Bolton.
Former Coronation Street actress Helen Flanagan has been banned from driving for six months
Helen Flanagan lives in a six-bed detached home just outside Bolton, Greater Manchester
Inside the farm shop in the village which is just a ten-minute walk from Flanagan’s house
One of the bus stops near Flanagan’s house in her village, which has five services a day
A street in the picturesque village near Bolton which has a pub as well as a farm shop
Her village has a pub as a well as a farm shop selling milk, bread, fruit, vegetables biscuits, cheese, eggs and meats, which is a third of a mile away. The shop opens Wednesday to Saturday, but Flanagan has not visited since it opened in September.
One woman called Ellie, 22, who works at the shop, told MailOnline: ‘We sell all of the essentials customers need and much more. Everything we sell is locally sourced. We have a great variety of products and there is plenty to choose from.
‘We even offer a delivery if customers don’t want to walk. And if we are closed, a few shop units down there is a fruit and veg shop that delivers. She wouldn’t ever be stuck for anything.’
Local resident Alan, 62, added: ‘It is a bit of a stretch to say that there is nowhere nearby to buy bread and milk nearby. You can almost see the farm shop sign from her house. And there’s nothing stopping her from getting home deliveries from the supermarket.’
Another local woman, Tracey, 31, told MailOnline: ‘For such a small place I think we are pretty well catered for. We have the Post Office, a pub and the shops. I’ve seen Helen in the pub a few times. She always seems pleasant.’
The net worth of Bury-born Flanagan has previously been estimated at between £2million and £3million, with the bulk of her earnings coming from her acting career – but she revealed earlier this month that she had ‘lost basically all my money’.
She told the court she earned £70,000 last year. And it is understood that she can earn up to £4,700 per sponsored Instagram post to her 1.1million followers.
As for her partners, her boyfriend Mr Talbot retired as a footballer in 2010 after a 12-year career in non-league which was prolific but unlikely to have been lucrative.
Her ex-partner Sinclair now earns an estimated £2,600 a week at Bristol Rovers – a far cry from when he was on £55,000 a week at Manchester City a decade ago.
On Wednesday, Flanagan appeared flushed as she left the courtroom after magistrates dismissed her pleas for leniency so she could ferry her children about, take them to meet their father Sinclair, and travel to therapy for ‘terrible anxiety’.
Helen Flanagan is now in a relationship with ex-footballer Robbie Talbot (pictured together)
Helen Flanagan has three children with ex-partner Scott Sinclair – Matilda, Delilah and Charlie
The actress – who was supported in court by Mr Talbot, 45 – also said her isolated moorland home meant it was a 10-minute drive even to go to the shops to buy bread and milk, and that she would ‘really struggle without a car’ in the remote location.
Flanagan told the court she earned £70,000 last year – but that her income varies and she cannot afford a £10 taxi to take her son to nursery.
The actress told how she is a ‘full-time’ mother to children Matilda, nine, Delilah, six, and Charlie, three – using the car to take them to nursery, school and activities. She said: ‘I’m a single mum, I live in the middle of the moors.’
She said her ‘job really is being a mum at home’ and she had ‘enough money in my account to pay off my tax and my VAT and basically that’s about it’ – later adding that she has ‘enough money to pay my taxes, pay the mortgage and for a bit of tea’.
Flanagan has been acting since the age of four and made early TV appearances in adverts for Daz and Fairy Liquid before her big break with a successful audition for Coronation Street.
She joined the ITV soap to play Rosie Webster when she nine years old in 2000 and continued until 2012.
Flanagan later returned to the show briefly in 2017, receiving a reported £30,000 for an initial three-month stint, then leaving again in 2018.
She has also appeared on various reality TV shows – most famously ‘I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!’ in 2012 for which she received a rumoured £150,000 and came in seventh place.
Other appearances followed on Celebrity Super Spa in 2013, Celebrity Wedding Planner in 2014, I’m a Celebrity… South Africa in 2023 and Celebs Go Dating in 2024.
She also appeared provocatively in lads’ mags such as Nuts and FHM from her late teens, but has more recently been focused on making money in social media posts.
Flanagan was engaged to Scott Sinclair (above) but they never married and separated in 2022
Helen Flanagan arrives at Wirral Magistrates’ Court with partner Robbie Talbot on Wednesday
Flanagan has more than a million followers on Instagram and was claimed to be making up to £4,700 per post in a study by Mazuma Mobile in 2020.
Some posts show her posing in dresses and jewellery or trying cosmetic brands, while others involve toys put to the test with her children such as Biggies plush animals.
But despite her various streams of income over the years, Flanagan left school aged 16 with only a handful of GCSEs to concentrate on acting full-time – and has often told of her struggles with money.
Speaking to the Daily Mail in 2012 when she was on I’m A Celeb, her grandfather Joseph Flanagan gave an example of how she once arrived at his home in a new £70,000 Range Rover and insisted he should get one himself.
Mr Flanagan pointed out that even if she had bought him one, he would not have been able to afford the petrol or insurance. ‘Helen doesn’t understand the value of money and will spend £1,000 on a meal,’ he said.
‘She doesn’t know how to set a table, never mind cook or clean. With all that money, I think a good finishing school would have been a better bet than spending it on handbags.’
In 2009, she split with her then boyfriend, Bolton builder Danny Scott – and months later she was dating Scott Sinclair, who was playing for Swansea City at the time.
He then made a £8million move to Manchester City in 2012 where he earned £55,000-a-week. Sinclair later played for Aston Villa, Celtic and Preston North End – before signing for Bristol Rovers in 2022, where he remains today.
Helen Flanagan joined ITV soap Coronation Street aged nine in 2000, playing Rosie Webster
Flanagan appeared on reality TV shows such as ‘I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!’ in 2012
Helen Flanagan arrives at the FHM 100 Sexiest Women In The World party in London in 2012
They had three children together – Matilda, Delilah and Charlie – and became engaged in 2018. However, they never married and separated in 2022 after 13 years together.
In an Instagram post earlier this month, she spoke about her financial woes following their split, saying: ‘I didn’t look after my mental health or think. I felt so s**t and sad. I felt like my whole life was f***ed up now and I had the perfect family.
‘Thirteen years is a long time to be with someone. My whole 20s. I had a lot of family fall outs too and I also lost basically all my money. Me and Scott weren’t married, we were engaged.’
At court on Wednesday, describing her rural home, Flanagan said: ‘I’m a single mum and I live on my own. I live in the middle of the moors. There’s no shop nearby; it’s a 10-minute drive for me to get the car to do a shop. It is very remote.’
Flanagan’s lawyer Patrick Boyers showed a map illustrating her location to magistrates. She went on: ‘This map shows my house, how remote it is, shows how far it is to the nearest supermarket, which is a 10-minute drive for me.’
Mr Boyers asked: ‘How easy is it to reach public transport?’
Flanagan made no mention of bus services, which run five times a day between her village and nearby Bolton, from a stop around the corner from her home, but repeated her earlier claims, saying: ‘I find it very difficult. I would really struggle without a car anyway. It’s really remote where I live; to get bread and milk it’s a 10-minute drive away.’
She said the only way to take her son Charlie, aged three, to his nursery was via an Uber taxi.
Prosecutor Stephen Kirk told how Flanagan, who already has six penalty points for speeding, failed to declare who had been driving the car when it was caught speeding at locations on Merseyside in June last year, doing 42mph in a 30mph limit and 51mph in a 40mph limit.
Magistrates gave her six more points for each offence – taking her total to 18 points, well above the 12-point threshold when magistrates normally impose a ban unless there is ‘exceptional hardship’.
Making her doomed plea to keep her licence, Flanagan said: ‘I am so sorry. I stupidly thought it was acceptable for my boyfriend to explain he was the one driving and it wasn’t me.’
Flanagan told the court how she is a ‘full-time’ mother to children Matilda, nine, Delilah, six, and Charlie, three, using the car to take them to nursery, school and activities.
She said: ‘My job really is being a mum at home. Their dad works away. It’s really difficult at the moment now for me to be earning money. I earn money on social media but it kind of varies what I earn.’
Flanagan has more than a million followers on Instagram and was claimed to be making up to £4,700 per post in a study by Mazuma Mobile in 2020. Above is an example of one of the posts
Helen Flanagan is pictured with her former footballer boyfriend Robbie Talbot
She added: ‘I think there might be a perception maybe that I would easily be able to afford a driver but that’s quite far from the case.
‘I’ve got enough money in my account to pay off my tax and my VAT and basically that’s about it.’
Asked by solicitor Mr Boyers how she takes her son Charlie to his nursery without a car, she said: ‘The other way to get Charlie to nursery is by Uber. That would be really expensive. I’m really struggling at the moment, financially.’
Asked by the clerk how much it cost, she said: ‘I did get an Uber from my house to the nursery this morning. It cost £10 that time.’
She also claimed her son ‘doesn’t do so well in a taxi’ and that he’s ‘much better strapped into a car where he’s safe’.
Mr Boyers then outlined how Flanagan has travelled to see a therapist called Liz in Birmingham since 2016.
Flanagan said she started going when she had post-natal depression after the birth of her oldest daughter.
She said: ‘I do drive every eight weeks or every few months, whenever I feel I’m really struggling with my mental health. She really helps me. I have terrible anxiety and I really struggle with OCD and ADHD.’
The TV personality said she ‘used to earn quite well’ but her income ‘now varies’.
Helen Flanagan and Robbie Talbot take the children on a family holiday to Majorca last summer
Helen Flanagan shares three children with footballer Scott Sinclair (pictured together)
Flanagan then explained how she depended on the car to take her children to see their father Sinclair, 35, who plays for Bristol Rovers.
The court heard they meet at a motorway service station mid-way between her home and Sinclair’s home in Bath, Somerset.
She said it would be ‘impossible to get a driver because it’s too expensive and my boyfriend doesn’t have a car’.
Becoming emotional, she added it would be ‘hard to put the burden on my parents… they have a lot on, they are in their late 60s’.
Flanagan added her parents already faced difficulties having to fly out to see her brother, who lives in Bangkok, Thailand, and has ‘really bad mental health’.
The actress said she had a ‘really difficult’ relationship with Sinclair, her ex-partner of 13 years, and that it would be too difficult for Mr Talbot to drive them.
Asked if she had spoken to Sinclair about whether other arrangements could be made when he saw their children, Flanagan said: ‘No, I haven’t. I’ve got a very difficult relationship with my ex-partner. It’s very, very draining.’
She said she had been ‘really, really angry’ at her current boyfriend over the speeding.
Of the failure to complete the forms, for which she was found guilty through the single justice procedure in which courts deal with motoring cases behind closed doors, Flanagan added: ‘I’m really sorry, I was so stupid. I can’t tell you how sorry I am.’
Summarising her arguments, Mr Boyers said: ‘You are a single mother of three who, if you are not able to drive, would not be able to take your children to nursery, to see their father to maintain their relationship or be able to attend medical appointments. Is that correct?’
‘Yes’, she replied.
Helen Flanagan helps launch juice drink Oasis Exotic Zero Sugar at Soho Square in 2023
Helen Flanagan unveils a Peta campaign at Covent Garden in London in May 2013
‘I think the perception of me (is) that I would easily be able to rely on a driver if I was banned from driving. That’s far from the case.’
She added that she has ‘enough money to pay my taxes, pay the mortgage and for a bit of tea. That’s it’.
Asked about her earnings, Flanagan said: ‘I’m genuinely not very good with my finances. If I was to have a fine, my accountant could have a look at my books.’
Chairman of the magistrates’ bench David Holley asked Flanagan if Mr Talbot would be able to drive her car if she was banned.
She said: ‘I would feel really, really angry if my boyfriend was to take that away from me and then he’d drive my car. I don’t think that would sit well with me.’
Sentencing Flanagan to a six-month ban, Mr Holley said: ‘We’ve listened carefully to everything said on your behalf, we take into account the arrangements in relation to your three children, the impact your ex-partner would suffer, (the impact on) your current partner and the impact a ban would have on your mental health.’
But Mr Holley said the ‘exceptional hardship’ argument was a ‘high barrier to pass’, adding: ‘We’re not satisfied those around you would suffer exceptional hardship.’
Flanagan nodded when she was sentenced and offered to pay the fine in £1,000 monthly instalments. She was given six penalty points for each offence.
She appeared shocked and red-faced as she turned and left the courtroom, not acknowledging Mr Talbot, who followed her.
MailOnline has contacted Flanagan’s representatives regarding her submissions in court.
