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Gloucestershire Business News

Woman banned for drink driving on e-scooter in Cheltenham

A 26-year-old Lincolnshire woman, who hired an e-scooter in Cheltenham while intoxicated after a hen night, has been banned from driving for 18 months.

At Cheltenham Magistrates Court on Monday (April 25) Paige Burnley of Lindum Mews, North Hykeham, admitted driving a motorised vehicle, a Zwings E-Scooter, on Royal Well Place, Cheltenham, on April 9, 2022, after consuming so much alcohol that she was more than twice the legal drink-drive limit.

Prosecutor May Li explained that at 10.40pm on Saturday, April 9, Burnley, who was wearing bright coloured clothing, was spotted by police on patrol in the town as she weaving in and out of vehicles in the bus lane while on the e-scooter.

"The officer persuaded Burnley to stop and she identified herself," said the prosecutor.

"The officer observed the her eyes were glazed and red and that her speech was slurred. Burnley failed a roadside breath test and was taken into custody where she provided a reading of 75 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, the legal limit being 35."

Chris Hogg, defending Burnley, said that she had been at a hen do in Cheltenham town centre and at the end of the evening the group had arranged for taxis to take them home. But the cabs failed to attend at the appointed time.

"My client thought, incorrectly, that they could ride the e-scooters instead and legitimately hired one of them. They did not see anything warning them of the legal requirements and she rode the electric scooter thinking she wasn't committing any offence.

"She accepts that ignorance of the law is no defence. Burnley was due to start her new job with a pharmaceutical company, but has put that on hold until the outcome of this court appearance."

District Judge Nicholas Wattam told Burnley: "It is to your credit that you admitted your offending straight away, and the penalty for this will be less severe for that reason.

"I accept you were under a false impression that you were able to use an e-scooter on the road having drunk alcohol that had taken you over the drink-drive limit. An e-scooter is classified as a motorised vehicle for the purposes of the law.

"This was a dangerous activity to be doing for which there has to be a penalty. You will be fined £500, which reflects the seriousness of the offence and you will be disqualified from driving for 18 months."

The judge also ordered that Burnley pay court costs of £85 and a victim surcharge of £50.

*Cheltenham is one of more than thirty towns and cities across the UK where e-scooters are being offered for hire and can be legally used on roads and pathways in a Government experiment to see if they are a safe and viable form of green transport.

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