Boozy moped rider is fined

Chesterfield magistrates’ court heard, last Monday, how Christopher Vickers, 24, of Eyre Arms, Calver, was caught by police after he was spotted riding with a pillion passenger when neither of them were wearing helmets.

Becky Allsop, prosecuting, said: “Officers spotted a moped with a rider and a female pillion passenger in the early hours of the morning and neither were wearing helmets.

“The officers lost sight of them but came across them after they had parked.”

Vickers told police he had been drinking in Chesterfield and had got a taxi to Calver and later took his girlfriend home on the moped.

Police breath-tested Vickers and he blew 69 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath exceeding the prescribed drink-drive limit.

He pleaded guilty to riding a motorcycle without protective head gear and guilty to exceeding the drink-drive limit after the incident in November.

John Wilford, defending, said: “He had been out in Chesterfield drinking and had got a taxi there and back. He became depressed during the evening and he has a number of health problems.

“Vickers had syringes with him and medication and even though he explained what they were for he had been refused entry to a couple of places. He returned back to where he works as a chef and to where he lives in the grounds and got on his moped and was seen and stopped by police.”

Magistrates warned Vickers it had been “foolish” to ride without a helmet and fined him £200 and ordered him to pay a £20 victim surcharge and £85 costs. He was also disqualified from driving for 17 months.