Kettering e-scooter rider 'didn't realise' he was in breach of his driving disqualification
A scaffolder who was banned from driving was caught by police on an e-scooter in Kettering town centre.
Alex Wynne appeared before Northampton Crown Court to be sentenced for driving while disqualified and possession of class-A drugs.
The 39-year-old was spotted in Silver Street on an e-scooter, riding away from the town centre by a police officer in a marked car at 7.45pm on October 25 last year.
She recognised him as a disqualified driver and put on her blue lights.
Prosecuting, Mark Karpinski, said that Wynne, of Marion Square, Kettering, and formerly of Inwood Close, Corby, stopped at the scene and told the officer that he didn’t know it was illegal for him to ride a scooter when banned from driving.
Wynne was arrested and taken to the custody suite where he told officers he had numbness in his legs.
Mr Karpinski said: “A small package of drugs fell from his clothing.”
It later turned out to be cocaine.
The court was told that Wynne, who wore a grey North Face tracksuit, had 19 previous convictions including one of driving while disqualified in August 2025, just two months before he was seen riding the e-scooter in Silver Street.
He was also in breach of a suspended sentence order he was given for a grievous bodily harm in the Rising Sun pub, also in Silver Street, in June 2024. During that incident he glassed another drinker, causing serious facial injuries.
Mitigating for Wynne, Paul Webb said: “He’s put himself in a precarious position with regard to these offences.
"He did not realise that riding an e-scooter put him in breach of his disqualification.
"The drugs were one small wrap and he forgot he even had it.”
Her Honour Judge Adrienne Lucking KC told Wynne that he was ‘very close’ to having his suspended prison sentence activated.
But she said that his response to probation supervision had been positive.
"Although you shouldn’t have been riding in a street, one can see how you may not have understood how serious use of a scooter was.
"What’s going to serve the public best is if you carry on and complete your work with the probation service.”
He was given three months in prison, suspended for 12 months, and was ordered to complete 15 rehabilitation activity requirement days and 100 hours of unpaid work.
"It’s not a get-out, do you understand?” said Judge Lucking.
"I’ll activate the entirety of all the suspended sentence, so you will go to prison for 18 months, if you come back here.
"This is your last chance. Don’t let the public down.”
He was also disqualified from driving for a further six months, on top of a disqualification that ends this month.