Pensioner defied one-way system

Man claimed he didn't know road was one-way

A 70 year-old man who defied the Mountain Road one-way system during TT race week has been banned from driving for a month.

Philip Bollen of Selbourne Drive in Douglas was also fined £350 and ordered to pay £50 costs when he appeared before Deputy High Bailiff Jayne Hughes today (Tuesday).

Bollen was spotted by Department of Infrastructure workers as he drove from the Creg-ny-Baa up towards Kate’s Cottage at 8.50pm on Saturday, June 4.

The court heard he travelled 200 yards before he realised his mistake and turned around.

Bollen’s advocate Steve Wood said his client didn’t use social media, listen to the radio or read local newspapers and thought the one-way system only ran from the Ramsey Hairpin to the Bungalow.

He’d been on his way to collect a group of TT visitors he’d befriended and neither he nor his passenger saw any signs as they came from the Creg-ny-Baa Back Road.

Miss Hughes, sentencing him, said anyone driving during TT had to take extra care on the roads, and pointed out the one-way system was to prevent serious accidents.

And she added even the short distance he’d driven before realising his mistake was a serious transgression.