A BANNED driver who breached a suspended sentence and his driving disqualification by riding a motorised scooter has avoided an immediate jail sentence.

Benjamin Roach, 21, of Walmgate, York, received a 42-week prison sentence, suspended for two years, in February for an assault in the city. The driving ban was imposed in 2004. Because he had breached that, this would normally have meant the suspended sentence would be activated, after York magistrates referred Roach’s case to the city’s crown court for sentence.

But Judge Stephen Ashurst accepted he had driven out of “ignorance rather than insolence”, describing the go-ped used by Roach as “like a child’s scooter with a motor on the back”.

He accepted Roach had not realised he needed a licence for it when he was stopped by police in Victor Street, York, on April 17. The court also heard that, despite a long criminal record, Roach was turning his life around. Paul Reid, for Roach, said: “He has a troubling record, but it does look as if the suspended sentence was one of the best things that happened to him. He is a changed character. He is only 21, but shows a mature and sensible attitude to his life at the moment.”

Sentencing Roach to 40 hours community work and a 28-day driving ban, Judge Ashurst said the most recent probation report said he had changed his behaviour considerably and that he did not think that driving the scooter – with no other aggravating features – was enough to trigger the suspended sentence.

He said: “I do not regard what happened on this occasion as being sufficiently serious to put you inside, but you have been warned. When the court took a chance on you in February it intends to see to see that order through to its conclusion in February 2012.”