Pavement Segway rider found guilty

An unemployed factory worker has become the first person in the UK to be convicted of riding a Segway on a pavement.

Phillip Coates’s prosecution has been seen as a test case by users of the distinctive two-wheeled personal transporters.

But District Judge Michael Rosenberg ruled at Barnsley Magistrates’ Court that the Segway is a motor vehicle under the meaning of the law and, therefore, it is an offence to ride one on the pavement.

Coates, 51, of Park Avenue, Cudworth, South Yorkshire, was fined £75, and ordered to pay £250 costs and a £15 victim surcharge.