A dozen drivers who attended an unauthorised motoring event in Trafford have been fined a total of £12,873 in fines and costs orders in court.
The men appeared at Stockport Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday 7 August following prosecutions brought by Trafford Council’s Community Safety Team for breach of a Public Spaces Protection Order.
The order prohibits people from attending unauthorised motoring events across Trafford and was brought into force following the death of a person at such an event in 2018, when a car left the road and collided with spectators watching the event. The order makes it an offence to participate in such an event, allow a vehicle to be taken to such an event or to fail to identify the driver of a vehicle attending at such an event.
The vehicles attending the unauthorised event at Chill Factore in Trafford on December 16 last year were identified by ANPR cameras and through partnership working with Greater Manchester Police.
The registered keepers of those vehicles were issued with notices requiring them to identify the drivers of those vehicles and were issued with Penalty Notices of £100 for breaching the order. Over 100 persons who attended those events paid the penalty notice and were not subject to any further action.
The Court heard that the defendants whose cases were brought before the Court had not paid the fixed penalty or identified the driver of it. In one case a driver pleaded guilty to the offence and having been given credit for his guilty plea, was fined £392, ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £157 and prosecution costs of £180.
The remaining defendants did not co-operate with the Court process and did not attend They were convicted in their absence and received fines of £666 each and also have to pay a court surcharge of £264, and costs of £180.
