Father hits out at testing system for moped riders (From Southend Standard)

Father hits out at testing system for moped riders

1:10pm Wednesday 20th March 2013 in News

A FATHER has hit out at the testing system for moped riders after his son landed himself in court.

The 16-year-old boy was caught in Southchurch Road, Southend, as he travelled at speed of 40 to 50 miles per hour.

When a police officer pulled him over for speeding he said: “I don’t know what the speed limit is.”

The boy appeared before Southend Youth Court where he pleaded guilty to speeding in excess of 30mph on January 24.

In his defence, the boy apologised for his behaviour but said it wasn’t clear to him what the limit was.

He said: “When I did my thing [TEST] it didn’t tell us a majority about the roads, and I’m quite forgetful person so it doesn’t help.

”His father said he had taken the bike away from his son, grounded him, and made him sit down and read the highway code. However, he also said he felt the CBT (Compulsory Basic Training) test was not thorough enough to let youngsters loose on the roads on mopeds.

He said: “He should’ve known when he did his CBT certificate. I dropped him off at 9am and he was done by 1pm.

“There’s no way he could have learned the highway code in that period of time.”

He admitted he should probably have sat his son down with the Highway Code himself.

The court gave him three points on his licence and ordered him to pay a £30 fine, £15 costs and a £15 victim surcharge. His father said he would pay it but make his son do jobs around the house to repay him.