Jailed: Taxi driver used fake licence to dodge penalty points

Afra Sihab, of Apollo Road, Wollescote, Stourbridge, told the authorities he had not been driving his hackney carriage when it was caught speeding on two separate occasions.

Fearing he could be disqualified from driving, he claimed the driver had been a Mohammed Afra Sihab and used a fake driving licence in the same name to accumulate speeding points.

Prosecutor, Mr Robert Edwards told a sentence hearing at Wolverhampton Crown Court that no such person existed.

Sihab, aged 52, was sentenced to eight months in prison and disqualified from driving for 12 months having previously admitted two counts of perverting the course of justice. The father-of-four was also ordered to pay £400 costs.

The court heard at the time of the first speeding offence in June 2009, Sihab was a licensed taxi driver with three points on his genuine driving licence. The cab registered in his name was clocked by a stationary camera travelling at 41mph in a 30mph zone.

Mr Edwards said Sihab returned the penalty notice nominating Mohammed Afra Sihab as the driver. The illicit licence was endorsed with three points and the fee paid.

The second speeding offence, in which Sihab's taxi was clocked doing 38mph in a 30mph zone, unfolded in an identical manner in April 2012.

Mr Edwards explained the authorities eventually caught up with Sihab after he was stopped by West Midlands Police on June 20 this year.

Officers found the fake licence in his car and when they checked the registered address it came back as a property owned by Sihab.

Defending, Alisha Harris, said her client had been trying to turn his life around.

She said: "Having received points on his licence he thought he would lose his licence if he got anymore. He has been told this could be a way of avoiding the points.

"He has expressed a great deal of remorse. He has a mortgage on his property of £401 and has since secured alternative work.

"He is running the Kings fast food shop in Stourbridge and says business is doing well.

"He is frankly mortified as what he has done and his family are ashamed. "

Giving his sentence, Judge Robin Onions, said: "These are offences of the greatest seriousness.

"In my view you do not regret what you have done, you regret the positions you have put yourself in.

"People like you try and avoid justice by deliberate acts of deception will be treated by the courts with some severity. "