TOAD TALKS: Can we stop calling criminals bikers please?

I was scrolling my way through Google earlier today, half-eaten bacon sarnie in hand (brown sauce, before you ask) wondering what the weather was likely to be like on the incoming Triumph Trident launch next week.

It was at this moment when a news story flew past my eyes that I really found it hard to ignore. The headline explains the tail idiocy in just a few short words. “Biker led police on 180mph cross-country chase from London to Buckinghamshire”. My interest was piqued and before you could say ‘personal best’ I was in and reading.

It's a fairly unromantic tale of Mr Marian Vasilica Dragoi, who decided that on a May afternoon earlier this year, he’d break up the boredom of the lockdown by going for a spin on his Honda. During the half-hour pursuit, the little cherub jumped numerous red lights, mounted the pavement a number of times, maxed the bike out at 180mph on the M1, and then rode the wrong way up the same motorway trying to evade the police. He eventually ran out of fuel and was arrested while trying to fill us the bike.

Marian Vasilica Dragoi 180mph police chase

Happily, nobody was hurt, no public property was damaged and, hopefully, the little cherub will now have to spend some time behind bars to think about his actions.

But the thing that really pisses me off about these types of news stories, is the way that the mainstream newspapers report the crimes that these criminals commit. If you Google this little scrote’s name, lots of the headlines that accompany the mugshot of his scrawny face refer to him as a ‘biker’. He’s not a biker, he’s a criminal and should be referred to in this way.

Calling him a biker bundles him up with the rest of us and puts this little tosser on the same standing as polite vest-wearing Brian from Bedford, who rides an R1250 with his wife and her matching textiles. It doesn’t take Bill Gates to figure out that these people are not comparable.

Yes, this little shit owned a bike, but it was ridden illegally, had no insurance, he had no licence, and it was running a false registration plate. He is a criminal, nothing more nothing less.

I think it would paint all legitimate bikers and motorcyclists in a better light if when newspapers would correctly refer to people like this in the proper manner.

Just owning and being able to ride a bike doesn’t necessarily make you a biker. In this kid's case, it makes him a massive Jeremy Hunt too.