A man was fined yesterday after police stopped him while he was riding a 33cc motorised scooter.

Mervyn Dale, 22, of Otley Road, Harrogate, told the town's court he had bought a Go-ped from an advert in a motor magazine only two days before police spotted him in North Park Road, Harrogate, after leaving the scooter in the foyer of a bank near the War Memorial.

The court heard Dale had initially been spotted in the middle of a line of cars but had later taken to the footway. He told police he had not been doing anything wrong.

But magistrates heard that the High Court - in a test case which had its origins in Harrogate - had ruled that Go-peds were covered by road traffic regulations.

Dale, who had finished a 12-month driving ban for driving while disqualified shortly before he was stopped, told the court: "From what I had been told, I didn't believe Go-peds were illegal."

Dale admitted riding the scooter without insurance or a licence, without a crash helmet and on a footpath and was fined £50 with £45 costs and given six penalty points.

Court chairman David Davies told him: "Whatever sympathy we may have for people driving these little machines, we have to administer the law as it stands."