A ‘MAN with a van’ was more a ‘mug with a van’ after he was found with a stolen quad bike, heard Skipton magistrates.

Jamie Beetham, 27, was part of an ‘unseemly procession’ including his Transit van, a second quad bike and a black Lexus that was spotted by a member of the public at 12.30am on May 11 last year making its way from Starbotton to Kettlewell, the court heard.

At the front of the convoy, which was making its way from Oughtershaw to Bradford, was a quad bike, being driven without its lights on, followed by Beetham, with a second quad in his van, and the car at the end.

After being alerted by a member of the public, police caught up with the convoy at Threshfield on the B6265. The Lexus got away, and a front seat passenger in the Transit ran off across fields, said prosecutor Martin Butterworth. He added that four quad bikes had gone missing from the area that night, and just the one, a £1,000 Honda TRX 350 was recovered.

Beetham, of West Royd Drive, Shipley, denied handling stolen goods and driving without insurance, but was found guilty after trial at the Skipton court, with sentencing adjourned to later in the week.

In mitigation, Keith Blackwell, said Beetham had been a ‘mug with a van’ after being hired to carry out a job to transport some items to Bradford by someone he did not know for a ‘reasonable fee’.

He was given a postcode to drive to and when he arrived, he was asked to transport two quad bikes, only one of which he could get in his van, said Mr Blackwell. The passenger, in his van, who he did not know and who had booked him to carry out the work, ran off into the night, when he was stopped by police. His van was impounded after the incident, and he had been unable to work for some weeks.

“He made a terrible mistake and got involved in something that he should have been more suspicious about. He should have realised there was some hanky-panky going on.” He said Beetham used his van to do removal jobs and landscaping, was a family man and was trying to get on with life. Beetham was given a 12 month community sentence with 100 hours unpaid work. For driving without insurance, his licence was endorsed with eight penalty points. He will also have to pay costs of £620 and a surcharge of £85.