A motorist who was banned from driving for speeding has been arrested, after getting behind the wheel just minutes after the ban was issued.
Charles Watts, who was caught travelling at 67mph in a 40mph zone in Essex, was found guilty at Basildon Magistrates' Court and handed a nine-month disqualification from driving. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t have as much luck as Tony Pulis did last year.
Watts already had six penalty points on his licence and was hit with another six for the speeding offence, which took him up to 12 resulting in an automatic ban. The court also imposed a fine of £183, which the defendant claimed he could not pay, stating that he only had £1 to his name.
However, the 24-year-old is now facing fresh charges of driving whilst disqualified and driving without insurance, and will return to court on October 17.
His ban comes as part of a crackdown on street-racing around Essex's Lakeside shopping centre. There were 16 other motorists brought before the court, many of whom were charged with offences which occurred on a 40mph stretch of dual carriageway.
One of the officers involved in the crackdown, Sgt Willsher, said: "It's good so many boy racers have been brought to court because it means we can deal with the issue but at the same time I wish we didn't have any of them up at all because that would mean we don't have a problem in the first place.
"We have this issue with cruising all over the county but we are prioritising Lakeside because of the extra danger of all the pedestrians who line up to watch.
"In any other situation many of these people would have been offered speed awareness courses, but we are concerned about how dangerous these drivers are as much as their speed."
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