A TRANENT man has been banned from driving and ordered to carry out unpaid work in the community after he and a friend admitted damaging a farmer’s field.

Kirk Scott, of the town’s Northfield, and co-accused Liam Cairney, of Goose Green Road, Musselburgh, were part of a group of men who drove motorcycles over the turf at Adniston Farm, near Macmerry.

The pair were said to have damaged the area by “churning up the grass” by driving their off-road bikes over the surface in April last year.

Both men were found to have no valid insurance or licence for the vehicles and the pair were soon identified and arrested following the incident.

First offender Cairney, 25, was sentenced at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last month, where he was handed a £640 fine and had six points placed on his driving licence.

Scott had his sentence deferred as the court was told that the 28-year-old already had points on his driving licence, was on bail at the time of the offence and was currently serving a community payback order previously imposed on a separate matter.

He was back at court last Wednesday, where Sheriff Wendy Sheehan was told that he had “limited means to pay a fine” and sentenced him to carry out 80 hours of unpaid work.

Scott was also handed six points and was subsequently banned from driving for six months under the totting-up process.

Previously, the court heard from Scott’s lawyer Eddie Wilson, who said that his client had pushed his trial bike to the field that day rather than riding it and that he normally took it to an area where there were bings to ride on.

The solicitor added that there had been “no farm animals remotely close to the field” but accepted that Scott “caused damage to the grass due to the bike”.

Mr Wilson added: “It appears the lesson has been learned and he no longer frequents that area.”

Scott and Cairney both admitted to driving a motorcycle with no valid insurance or licence at Adniston Farm, near Macmerry, on April 3 last year.

The pair also pleaded guilty to a third charge of maliciously riding a motorcycle, causing damage to a field at the same location while acting with others on the same date.