A reality TV star was caught reading about horses while driving along a Suffolk road.

Harriet Loder, who appeared in E4 series Made in Chelsea, was pulled over in a silver Mini Cooper in Newmarket last March.

The 28-year-old horse breeder was driving on a revoked licence when stopped by Pc Hylton Garrick in an unmarked car.

Loder, who runs a racing stud at Newmarket’s Marwell Park, had denied driving without proper control and otherwise than in accordance licence – but the case was proved in absence when she failed to appear at South East Suffolk Magistrates’ Court, in Ipswich, on Monday.

Prosecutor Becky Owen asked Pc Garrick to recount the events of March 3 last year, when he spotted Loder’s car travelling along High Street just before 1pm.

The officer was parked near the entrance to Queensberry Road when he saw Loder with what he initially thought was a mobile phone in her right hand.

“I could clearly see she was looking at it, and not where she was going,” he told the court.

“I pulled out behind her and waited for a safe space to illuminate my blue lights.

“When I approached the car and explained I thought she was holding a phone, she was quite adamant she wasn’t. She picked up a leaflet from the passenger seat and said ‘I was reading this’. It had pictures of horses on it.

“I explained that, if she was reading something while driving, she couldn’t have been paying full attention.”

Loder, who appeared in series three of Made in Chelsea, was issued a traffic offence report – on the back of which she wrote her signature and ‘I don’t agree’.

“I don’t believe she was disagreeing with the fact she was committing an offence,” added Pc Garrick. “She had already accepted she was reading the document.”

It was later established the licence Loder presented had been previously revoked.

Magistrates took less than a minute to decide she was guilty of both offences.

Loder, whose uncle bred European champion racehorses Marwell and Marling, already had 10 penalty points and could face disqualification.

She may also be ordered to pay £625 in court costs when sentenced next month.

She will be required to appear in person for the hearing on February 12.