In brief: A 20-year-old Jersey man has been fined £3,600 and ordered to complete 90 hours of community service after converting his grandfather’s bicycle into a motorised vehicle that could reach 25mph. Steve Abreu Maltez admitted nine offences at the Magistrate’s Court, including riding without insurance or a valid licence, and the homemade machine was ordered to be forfeited and destroyed.
The Homemade Hotrod That Backfired
There is something almost admirable about the ingenuity, if not the judgement. Steve Abreu Maltez, 20, took a bicycle gifted to him by his grandfather, bolted on an electric motor and a throttle, fashioned some “crude” footrests, and set off into Jersey’s roads apparently confident that nobody would notice. They noticed.
The Jersey Evening Post reports that the modified machine was capable of reaching 25mph, became unstable at around 20mph, and was fitted with neither a horn nor a bell. It still ran on standard bicycle tyres. The court heard that the vehicle could not be registered or made compliant with road-traffic laws, making it, in the eyes of the law, an “unregistrable vehicle” that nonetheless operated as a motor vehicle, requiring registration, insurance and a valid licence to ride.
Maltez had none of those things.
Nine Offences and a Sizeable Record
When Maltez appeared before the Magistrate’s Court on Monday, he admitted nine offences in total. These included driving without insurance, driving without a valid licence, failing to stop, using an unregistered and defective vehicle, riding on a footpath and cycle track, ignoring a one-way sign, and possessing 0.2 grams of cannabis.
Assistant Magistrate Adam Clarke noted that, despite being “still a young man”, Maltez already had a “sizeable record” of motoring offences. The third conviction for driving without insurance was, the magistrate said, serious enough to justify youth detention. He opted instead for 90 hours of community service, a £3,600 fine and a three-month driving ban.
Advocate Adam Harrison, defending, explained that previous driving bans had made obtaining insurance for a conventional motorbike prohibitively expensive, and that Maltez had built the bike as a “cost-effective” way to get around. He argued that Maltez “did not understand and appreciate” that the modifications triggered the legal requirements for registration and insurance. Mr Harrison accepted, however, that his client’s actions had been “highly reckless” and attributed the behaviour to his “immaturity”.
The defence also asked for the bicycle to be returned on the grounds that it held “sentimental value”, given its origins as a gift from Maltez’s grandfather. The court was unmoved: the bike was ordered to be forfeited and destroyed, along with the cannabis.
What the Law Says
The case is a useful reminder that Jersey’s road-traffic laws do not care about the spirit in which a vehicle was built. Once a bicycle is fitted with a motor and throttle capable of propelling it at speeds that place it in the category of a motor vehicle, it falls under the full weight of registration, insurance and licensing requirements. Ignorance of that fact, however genuine, is not a defence.
For anyone tempted to follow Maltez’s example, the arithmetic is straightforward: the cost of the fine and community service hours rather exceeds the savings made by avoiding a motorbike insurance premium.
Source: Jersey Evening Post
