A 27-year-old man was fined 800 euros and suspended for ten months for having reversed his motorcycle and tried to escape from the police.
A former educator was sentenced Tuesday in Hauts-de-Seine to a fine of 800 euros for an urban rodeo, an offense which “never left the news in courtrooms”, brought to light after an accident and the announcement by the Minister of the Interior of the intensification of controls. Last March, around 10:00 p.m. in Colombes, police officers noticed a young man “attempting” a rear wheel on a cross bike, one of them testified before the Nanterre court.
Fleeing the police, the driver without a helmet turned around and began a chase, alternating one-way traffic and driving on the sidewalk, according to the president. At the exit of a parking lot, he collided with the vehicle of the Anti-Crime Squad (BAC) that had come to intercept him, made a movement of his arm to free himself from the grip of a policeman, causing him to fall to the ground and causing 4 days of ITT (total incapacity for work) for an injured knee.
“What went through your head?” asks the president. “I was in the euphoria of having bought the motorcycle”, justified the 27-year-old man who admitted the refusal to comply but contested having wanted to do a wheel back, took forbidden directions, lost control of motocross and hit the BAC car. “If I had stopped, (the police) would have confiscated the motorbike”, explains the defendant with a neat appearance and a lost look.
Ten month suspended sentence
“The rodeo, it is not since this summer that we are worried about it (…) It is a scourge which has existed for a long time”, declared the prosecutor, requesting a cancellation of license with prohibition to retake it before a year, 120 hours of community service and a road awareness course. “In reality, (this phenomenon) has never left the courtroom,” sighed the president at the hearing, recalling her dangerousness and the little girl injured in early August during an urban rodeo in Pontoise.
The defendant was fined 800 euros for the urban rodeo, said his lawyer Matteo Bonaglia, asked by AFP. He was also given a ten-month suspended prison sentence and a ban on driving a motorized two or three-wheeler for refusing to comply.
More than 2,200 people have been arrested and 1,800 scooters and motorcycles have been seized since the beginning of the year for urban rodeos, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said on August 17. On August 8, he announced an intensification of controls throughout France.