A MAN caught driving while disqualified took to the roads again just five hours later after picking up his seized VW Golf at a nearby garage.

Zakir Mumtaz, of Dean Court Road, Oxford, appeared at Oxford Magistrates’ Court on Friday to admit two charges of driving while disqualified and two of driving without insurance.

The 29-year old, who magistrates called ‘an extreme danger to the public’ behind the wheel, had already had his driving licence revoked on medical grounds in December last year, and had been banned from driving after accruing too many penalty points.

Despite that, police stopped him at Leopold Street off Cowley Road on August 13 driving his VW Golf which he had collected from a repair shop in Botley.

Officers were quick to seize the car and it was placed at Egertons Recovery, Abingdon, while Mumtaz was warned that he was not allowed to drive again because of his disqualification.

Just five hours later when Mumtaz went to collect the car at the Abingdon garage with his mother he was caught again by police driving her Nissan Primera vehicle.

In mitigation, Charlie Moss, defending, said that her client had only driven his mother’s car on the second occasion because of a ‘foolish’ decision after the garage would not store her car free of charge.

She added that Mumtaz had been full and frank about what he had done and had co-operated with police throughout.

A report prepared by the National Probation Service read to the court said that Mumtaz ‘regretted’ his actions.

Sentencing, presiding magistrate Chris Ballinger said that Mumtaz was an ‘extreme danger’ to the public when behind the wheel.

He said: “These matters are very serious. You knew you should not be driving because you were disqualified.

“You also knew you should not be driving because you licence had been revoked; you fall asleep at the wheel if you drive. You are an extreme danger to the public if you drive so you are at the highest level of our sentencing options.”

Mumtaz was jailed for eight weeks, suspended for 12 months and made subject to a community order to include rehabilitation activity requirement for 10 days.