Pete Doherty gets away with a fine

So you'll recall Pete Doherty turning up for court on a driving charge last month only for him to turn out to have a coat made out of drugs?

In fact, he had thirteen wraps of heroin on him. In court.

Here's a funny thing, though: his defence was going to be that he owns so many coats, he simply forgot the one he pulled on was stuffed with smack.

I mean: as if any court is going to fall for that, right?

It turns out the court fell for that:

On Wednesday, he was fined 750 pounds (865 euros, 1,210 dollars) with 85 pounds costs after the court heard he had simply forgotten the drugs were in one of his many coats.

Judge Joti Boparai told Doherty at Gloucester Magistrates' Court: "Either this was sheer stupidity or a ploy to get more publicity."

Or, quite possibly, both.

[Defence lawyer Bruce] Clark said Doherty's faltering career was now going from strength to strength, with a concert in Moscow on the horizon and even a part in a forthcoming film.

A date somewhere in deepest Europe and a part in a movie? Oh, yes, that puts him somewhere between Stephen Baldwin and Jim Bowen on the career success stakes, doesn't it?

[Clark said] "This (the offence) was an accident. This was the ghost of past offending, not the resurrection."

"It was a headless horseman of criminality, not a Lazarus. Don't call it a comeback, call in Derek Acorah."

A man walks into court with thirteen wraps of heroin in his pockets. There is no punchline, just the sound of one man laughing.