England rugby star Luke Cowan-Dickie who hails from Exminster was cleared of speeding after telling a court he was not driving at the time.
Cowan-Dickie denied the speeding offence and a second count of failing to identify who was the driver.
He told the court his agent had borrowed his Mercedes for a few days and that he was driving at the time.
Cowan-Dickie said he did reply to a letter from the Safety Camera Partnership and told them who was behind the wheel.
But the court heard they did not receive his reply and Cowan-Dickie said he then did not receive a reminder from them last November.
Cowan-Dickie told the JPs: ’I had been training that day. My agent came down to see me and a few of the guys and I lent him my car.’
The burly front row player, who faces a tough semi-final match against Saracens this weekend, said post in his village does get ‘muddled’ at times.
He said neighbours have brought round post addressed to him but sent to the wrong number house in the new-build area, saying ‘the name was right, the number was wrong’.
He denied prosecutor Sonia Croft’s assertion that he had ‘buried his head in the sand’ and had not responded to the documents.
She asked if it was a coincidence that both his reply and the reminder went astray.
His lawyer Richard Saynor said his client ‘is not hiding anything at all and no reason to lie’ adding: ’Things go missing in the post.’
The JPs cleared the player saying: ’There are circumstances when the postal system falls down.’