A YOUTH who made ‘a real pain’ of himself by repeatedly riding an off-road motorbike through Rugby town centre doing wheelies has thrown away a chance he was given.
While subject to a suspended sentence, Jay Skinner ‘fell to temptation’ by riding his mother’s quad bike up and down the street after it had been taken without her permission.
And that landed him back at Warwick Crown Court in front of the judge who had taken a chance with him by imposing the suspended sentence in January.
Skinner, 19, of Knole Close, Rugby, had admitted driving a vehicle taken without consent, driving while disqualified and having no insurance.
He was jailed for two months, consecutive to five months of his suspended sentence which he was also ordered to serve, and disqualified from driving for 15 months.
Prosecutor Ian Windridge said that on June 28 the police were called about a quad bike being ridden up and down Knole Close – and as officers headed there, they saw it being ridden in Bilton Road by Skinner and a passenger.
The quad bike, which belonged to his mother and had been taken without her consent, turned into Stowe Drive, and when the officers got to Knole Close they saw Skinner getting off.
Mr Windridge added that at the time Skinner was subject to an eight-month suspended prison sentence, with 150 hours of unpaid work and a 12-month driving ban, imposed in January for four offences of dangerous driving.
On that occasion he outlined how, between October 1 and 22, police received a number of reports about young men riding around Rugby town centre on off-road motorbikes. As they sometimes rode without helmets, police were concerned that any attempt to pursue them would increase the risk of injury so they instead collated CCTV recordings and checked Facebook.
Regularly captured on the footage over several nights was a green Kawasaki scrambler with the number 42 on the rear and a red scrambler of unidentified make with 64 on the front.
On various nights they were shown riding around the town doing wheelies, going through red lights and the wrong way round an island.
Facebook postings were checked, leading the police to Skinner who was linked to the red machine, and another youth, and they were both arrested and admitted what they had been doing.
David Everett, defending, said Skinner completed the 150 hours of unpaid work in the first two months of the suspended sentence, and he also complied with a curfew imposed as part of that sentence.
“The reason he committed this offence was quite simply that temptation came before him, and he gave in to it,” he added.
Sentencing Skinner, Judge Stephen Eyre QC said: “You are a fool to yourself.
“In January of this year, when I came into court to sentence you for a set of offending involving incidents of dangerous driving – making a real pain of yourself and creating a risk to other people in Rugby town centre – I believed I was going to have to send you to prison.
“I was dissuaded from that because I was persuaded there was some good in you, and you were given a chance.
“You carried out the unpaid work and complied with the curfew, but the most important thing about a suspended sentence is that you do not commit further offences.
“A fraction over five months after you were given that chance, you committed very similar offending. You drove a quad bike taken without permission, and while you were disqualified and had no insurance.
“I have no choice but to activate the suspended sentence, because you chose to offend while you were subject to it.
“But I will not activate all of it because there is some good in you and because you did the unpaid work.”
