NSW police are investigating whether former ALP power broker Sam Dastyari should be slapped with a $2200 fine after riding a lime green share bike on a Sydney footpath.

Mr Dastyari, a former Labor senator, was riding the bike in a suit and helmet along the Elizabeth Street footpath on Thursday morning on his way to testifying at an anti-corruption probe into suspect party donations.

He stopped outside the ICAC building at 255 Elizabeth Street and spoke to reporters, gesturing wildly with the helmet.

NSW road rules stipulate cyclists older than 16 are banned from riding on the footpath unless working as a postal officer, accompanying a child rider or transporting a child on a bike trailer.

A NSW Police spokeswoman on Friday said authorities were looking into the matter and waiting on advice from the traffic and highway patrol command.

The maximum fine for breaking the rule is $2200.

Later on Friday, Mr Dastyari told 2GB radio he was going to speak to police at Sydney’s Surry Hills station about the footpath cycling.

He said he had an explanation for it – “and I think it’s a pretty good explanation”. He followed that up with a tweet:

I briefly rode a bicycle on the footpath yesterday to avoid journalists being hit by motor vehicles. Obviously a mistake. Thank you to the journalists who have highlighted this as the biggest issue facing NSW. pic.twitter.com/1Hb5Mv1XZz

— Sam Dastyari (@samdastyari) August 30, 2019

ICAC is examining whether Huang Xiangmo – who is now banned from Australia – was the true source of $100,000 said to be donated by 12 people at a 2015 Chinese Friends of Labor dinner

A former state party general secretary, Mr Dastyari was drawn into in the scandal this week by now-suspended Labor boss Kaila Murnain who said he advised her in 2016 to tell the party’s lawyers about the alleged donations.