Well, the streets will feel a little safer, if only for a few weeks. Pete Doherty was disqualified from driving and fined £300 at his most recent appearance at Thames Magistrates' to answer charges of driving without insurance or a licence in November last year. As previously reported, police stopped the Babyshambler after he was seen driving erratically near his home in east London.
Our old friend Judge Jane McIvor, fining Doherty £200 for driving without insurance, £100 for driving without a driving licence, plus £55 costs, warned the singer that he could face a prison term if he drives without a licence again. Doherty's lawyer, Sean Curran, explained that his client was eligible for a licence, but had not actually applied for one after having passed his driving test. Curran explains: "Mr Doherty accepts that he was driving with no licence and insurance. He had left the task of getting an insurance policy in the hands of one of his managers, who hadn't done so".
Two others arrested alongside Doherty on that occasion also appeared in court - Michelle Breeze, a retail manager, charged with two counts of possessing heroin, and Peter 'Wolfman' Wolfe, a songwriter, charged with possessing cocaine. Breeze's case was adjourned until 6 Mar, Wolfe was fined £300 and ordered to pay £55 costs.