A TEENAGER who filmed himself riding his motorbike at double the speed limit on rural roads was caught after police seized his Go Pro helmet footage.

After buying himself a Go Pro motorcycle helmet camera, Joseph Wicks taped an 11-minute ride through Elmstead Market where he clocked up speed as high as 65mph in a 30 zone, 55mph in a 40 and 65mph in a 50mph zone on his 125cc KTM motorcycle.

Two days later he filmed himself speeding once again around Great Bromley and roads around Colchester where he went as fast as 63mph in a 30mph zone.

Wicks was also on camera overtaking between two cars on a dual carriageway and overlapping a Volvo on a zebra crossing.

Nobody was hurt during his trips in November last year but, two weeks later, Wicks, 18, was involved in a crash with a van which was not his fault.

He was hospitalised for four days after the smash and police investigating the crash seized his helmet camera, where the footage of him speeding came to light.

To make matters worse, in March Wicks was caught driving an Audi A3, which he had bought just days before, in Propelair Way, Colchester, without insurance and with quadruple the legal amount of a cannabis derivative in his system.

Police also found a small amount of cannabis on him.

When he appeared at Colchester Magistrates’ Court yesterday, Wicks, of Braithwaite Drive, Colchester, admitted two counts of dangerous driving, driving while above the limit of a controlled drug, possession of cannabis and driving without insurance.

Phillip Pearson, prosecuting, said: “It was foolish and dangerous driving simply because it is not a single incident.

“It was a course of action over a period of time.”

Roger Brice, mitigating for Wicks, said: “The investigation came about from seeing footage from his Go Pro camera after an accident which was totally not his fault.

“The majority of the speedings on their own would only attract penalty points.

“It was foolish behaviour from a young man who was 17, a boy, at the time.

“He was showing off to other people but not competing.

“It is not good driving but he was not cutting somebody up and nobody was hurt.”

Wicks lost his job after his accident but has now returned to work as a labourer.

Magistrates handed him a four month custodial sentence in a Young Offenders Institution for the dangerous driving which was suspended for a year, banned him from driving for 18 months and ordered him to complete 120 hours of unpaid work.

For drug driving he was handed a 12 month driving ban to run concurrently with his other ban and fined £200.

There was no separate penalty for the other charges and Wicks was ordered to pay £285 in other court costs.