Tandragee man who drove an e-scooter on a Portadown footpath then into the path of a PSNI vehicle was over the alcohol limit, Craigavon court hears
Police officers watched a man drive an e-scooter on the pavement and then onto the road into the path of a police vehicle, while over the alcohol limit, a court has heard.
Stephen Magee, aged 44, from Willowfield, Tandragee, appeared before Craigavon Magistrates Court charged with driving with excess alcohol, no insurance and no driving licence.
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The court heard how police spotted a red and black e-scooter being driven along the footpath at Mahon Road, Portadown at around 6.45pm on September 2 this year.
It was swerving across the footpath and suddenly going down the kerb onto the road and into the path of a police vehicle before re-joining the footpath.
When they spoke to the rider he confirmed he owned the scooter. Police noticed a smell of intoxicating liquor from his breath and he failed a preliminary breath test, reading 55 micrograms of alcohol and the evidential breath test was also 55. He also admitted to not having a driving licence or insurance for the vehicle. The drink driving limit in NI is 35 micrograms per 100 millilitres of breath.
Magee’s barrister, Mr Conor Lunny, said the defendant, “like many others”, wasn’t aware that “scooters are essentially motorised vehicles” and considered the same as cars.
Mr Lunny described the reading as at the “lower end” and explained his client hasn’t had a driving licence for “quite some time”.
"He has an unenviable record but there is a significant gap since the last offence,” said the barrister.
He added that Magee now knows that if he is to get an e-scooter he has “‘to regularise his own licence and insurance”.
District Judge Michael Ranaghan said: “Driving one of the these e-scooters on the pavement is dangerous in itself. Then if you’re driving with alcohol on board it is even more dangerous.
"You are lucky you are only charged with the offences before the court today,” said the district judge.
For driving with excess he banned Magee from driving for 12 months and two further six months driving bans, to run concurrently on the other two charges. For the excess charge he was also fined £150 plus the £15 offender levy and £100 each for the other two charges.