A chef who had been subject of two driving bans at the same time was caught behind the wheel while one of the disqualifications was still in place.
David Rootes, who owes a staggering £7,000 to the court, mainly for driving matters, was banned from the roads for six months in March last year but, eight weeks before it ended, he was given a another disqualification, this time for 18 months. A court heard that, while the second ban was still in place in April this year, the 46-year-old was caught driving his girlfriend's car on the A1, in north Northumberland.
Magistrates were told that uninsured Rootes worked as a chef and travelled all over the North East and beyond with work and had just finished a shift in Seahouses when police pulled him over. It was quickly established that he was a banned driver and he was arrested.
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Rootes, of Currel House, in North Shields, has now been fined £833 and handed a further 10-month ban after he pleaded guilty to driving while disqualified and without insurance at South East Northumberland Magistrates' Court. He was also ordered to pay £85 costs and a £333 victim surcharge.
Prosecutor, James Long, said Rootes was stopped by police in a BMW, with a personalised registration plate resembling his own surname, on the A1 at Chathill on April 16 this year. Mr Long added: "The defendant is spoken to and its discovered he's disqualified until January 2024, having been disqualified in July 2022.
"As a consequence, he couldn't have any valid insurance, so he commits that offence as well." The court heard that Rootes was a chef and, as a result of working all over the country, hadn't realised he'd received the ban in July as it was given to him by a court in Manchester.
Stewart Hay, defending, said: "He was aware of the disqualification he received in March for six months, which ended last September, but not the further one he was given in July. He thought his ban had ended, so he could drive again. He was driving his girlfriend's car on this occasion."
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