Pete Doherty fined for taking drugs to court

Shortly after being fined for careless driving, Peter Doherty was arrested and fined for walking into a court with 13 wraps of heroin.

British musician Pete Doherty was fined on Wednesday for walking into a court with 13 wraps of heroin in his coat pocket.

The 30-year-old Babyshambles singer was arrested in December in the corridor of Gloucester Crown Court in southwest England, shortly after he had been fined for careless driving.

Doherty, the former lover of supermodel Kate Moss, was escorted from the court when security guards saw the packets of drugs fall from his pocket.

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.''

Doherty's defence lawyer, Bruce Clark, said: ''He is a recovering heroin addict and has received some very sophisticated medical treatment.''

"He had been an addict for some years and is a very well known, famous musician with a huge international reputation."

The judge said: ''That makes it even worse in a way. I have to look at the public perception.''

But 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.

He said: ''This (the offence) was an accident. This was the ghost of past offending, not the resurrection.''