A DRIVER caught driving with false number plates when he was banned from the roads has got his licence back.

Paul Ian Jacques, 39, will not have his driving whilst disqualified offence endorsed on his driving licence after he appealed to York Crown Court.

Last October, through his solicitor Harry Bayman, he told York Magistrates Court he didn't know he was disqualified when police stopped him in July.

He claimed the false number plates on his van were to avoid bailiffs taking it to settle his company's debts.

As part of his sentence, he was banned from driving for six months.

District judge Adrian Lower said: "Something smells very fishy indeed."

Jacques, who gave an address of East Lane, Shipton-by-Beningbrough to the magistrates' court and had given a different address to the police, had pleaded guilty to driving whilst disqualified and using false number plates.

At the crown court, Graham Parkin on Jacques' behalf said Jacques had appeared before York Magistrates Court in September after he was stopped for driving whilst disqualified in August.

In September, the district judge accepted his account that in August, he had been unaware of the hearing at which he had been disqualified in his absence.

He had given him an absolute discharge and ordered his licence not be endorsed with the August offence.

Mr Parkin told the Recorder of York, Judge Sean Morris sitting with two magistrates the sentence for the July offence should have been similar to the sentence for the August offence.

The solicitor also said Jacques had not driven since the October hearing and had observed the October driving ban.

The appeal bench agreed and restored Jacques' licence.

Judge Morris told Jacques: "Putting false number plates on a car rings huge alarm bells.

"In your case, you were lucky to be dealt with as you were.

"It was a stupid thing to do. Don't be doing anything like that again."

The same day as the appeal, Jacques persuaded York magistrates he had not known about a speeding case against him at Harrogate Magistrates Court.

The conviction and sentence was set aside.

He pleaded guilty to speeding on the A64 and was ordered to pay £168 in a fine, costs and statutory surcharge. He also got three penalty points.