Champion biker banned after cops catch him on his Christmas hoverboard
A top motorcycle racer has been banned from the road for six months after he was caught riding an uninsured hoverboard given to him as a Christmas present.
Max Hunt, 34, is known as ‘Mad Max’ and has recently completed the gruelling 5,456 on Paris Dakar rally on a powerful 450cc rally bike.
But he was on a 10mph Airwheel board when he was spotted by police motorcyclist crossing St James’s Street near Green Park in central London.
He was prosecuted in one of the first cases of its kind in the UK.
Hunt, who has completed in the British Supersport championships, was travelling from his office on Kensington High Street to meet a friend in Knightsbridge when he tried to overtake some pedestrians at a junction.
It is an offence under the Highways Act to ride the electric-powered boards on the pavement or the road
Guidelines state the self-balancing scooters can only be used on private land with the landowner’s permission, guidelines state.
Aimee Emby, prosecuting, said: ‘The police officer was travelling on a motorcycle. He was riding towards the junction to Piccadilly.
‘The defendant was driving the Airwheel device at the crossing with Jermyn Street and in the process the officer asked him to stop and he gives the kind of requirements that are enforced for such vehicles.
‘They require drivers to be insured. He stopped when asked and he couldn’t produce proof of insurance.’
Hunt said the present had been a gift from his in-laws and he was not aware he needed insurance.
The court heard Hunt already has nine points on his licence for two speeding offences and the further six points put him over the maximum limit of 12.
Giving evidence Hunt said he believed the board was ‘just a toy’ and was unaware it required insurance.
He told the court the vehicle was a ‘kind of Segway without handlebars’ with one wheel in the middle to balance on.
Hunt told the court: ‘My wife’s parents gave it to me for Christmas. It was a toy. It was a fun gift. I had seen one before and they are quite fun things to move around on’.
Phil Emery, defending, said: ‘Mr Hunt has pleaded guilty to no insurance and quite correctly so. It’s a case of strict liability. But of course that strict liability doesn’t extend to the issue of special reasons.’
District Judge James Henderson described Hunt’s failure to research whether the board required insurance of the roads was an ‘act of thoughtlessness’.
The judge said it had taken him 30 seconds to do a search on the internet and find out the rules.
He said: ‘He seemed to take the view that because other people were using them on the road he assumed he didn’t need insurance. A moment of research on the internet would have revealed he did.
‘It took me 30 seconds to find the relevant information that you can’t user these on the roads. He just assumed so, he was in no way misled.
‘There was a complete absence of thought’.
Hunt was also fined £500 and ordered to pay costs £85 and a victim surcharge of £30, totalling £635.
The biker owns his own property management company, Blonde Limited, which lets out luxury properties in west London.
His wife and business partner Billie came to support him in court with their 13-week-old son.
Hunt, of (94) Palace Gardens Terrace, Notting Hill, admitted one count of using a motor vehicle on a road without third party insurance.
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