A MOTORCYCLIST has been banned from the roads after riding through central Harrogate at 82mph.

Lee-Roy Campbell was recorded speeding through the 30mph zone on the A61 Leeds Road on a black Yamaha R1 performance motorbike.

The 53-year-old was charged with exceeding a speed limit after he was pictured by North Yorkshire Police safety camera team and investigated.

The offence took place at 10am on a Sunday last month.

Campbell, of Harrogate, pleaded guilty to speeding when he appeared at Northallerton Magistrates’ Court.

Magistrates disqualified him from driving for seven months and ordered him to pay £569 in fines and costs.

After the hearing, Traffic Constable Andy Forth, who investigated the incident for North Yorkshire Police’s Traffic Bureau, said: “The speed Campbell reached in central Harrogate were frankly ludicrous.

“He deliberately placed innocent pedestrians and other road users in serious jeopardy – if he’d hit a child or even an adult at that speed, their chances of surviving would have been virtually zero.”

He added: “As the biker season begins and riders amass in North Yorkshire, this is a timely reminder that no road users are immune from prosecution if they speed in North Yorkshire. Speeding can have serious and life-changing consequences, which is why we enforce it.

“We see these consequences regularly – our officers have to pick body parts up from crash scenes and break horrific news to families of people who have died. If motorists saw those things too, I guarantee it would make them think twice about speeding.”