A National Hunt jockey has appeared in court and pleaded guilty to a speeding offence.
The court was told that around 5.57am on the morning of January 23rd Callum David Bewley, 25, of Melbourne Road, Carlisle was driving an Audi car on the A66 near the Kirkby Thore.
That section of road has a 40mph speed limit, he was clocked doing 47mph, court – papers show he was convicted in August and attended today (THURS) for sentencing.
Paul Tweddle for Bewley explained to the magistrates that his client is a freelance jockey and has a sponsor SPG Security in Scotland who he rides for, they have five-horses.
He “rides out” exercises horse for some other owners and needs to be at various stables for around 6am. He rides at most race courses in the Borders and England from Carluke in Scotland to Kempton Park, and travels around 60,000 miles a year.
Bewley already has 9-penalty-points for speeding on his licence and under the totting up procedures he could be banned from driving for this offence, this would cause exceptional hardship not only to him, but owners of the horses and the company that sponsors him, he works as a freelance jockey and has to ride to earn any money, getting to racecourses would be difficult the hours he works and no-public transport.
The lawyer explained that a jockey’s career can be short, and Bewley is just recovering from a riding injury, and hopes to be fit for the start of the National Hunt season in the next few weeks. He also has a mortgage on his house in Carlisle with normal living expenses.
The presiding magistrate Paul Baird said he [Bewley] had put himself in a difficult position a risk to his livelihood and if he lost his driving licence this could be an end to his career, three-penalty-points were placed on his licence, which makes a total of 12-points and he was due to be banned.
However they agreed to accept his exceptional hardship plea, and he would not be banned, he has to pay court costs of £197.
