A BANNED Sutton driver who failed to appreciate he needed to re-take his test before driving again avoided a prison sentence.

Skipton magistrates told Stuart Whitaker, 61, who admitted driving while banned and while more than three times over the limit, that he had crossed the custody threshold, but that sending him to prison would not benefit anyone.

Whitaker, from Sutton-in-Craven, who also admitted taking the car without the consent of the owner, was instead given a 12 month community order, with 20 days rehabilitation activity, and banned from driving for five years.

Whitaker was stopped by police close to the social club car park on January 2 in Main Street, Cross Hills, in the car where he had been living rough after his housing association flat was badly damaged by fire, the court heard.

Police, alerted by the slow speed he was driving and by the smoke coming out of the back of the car, carried out a check that revealed it had been registered off road. Whitaker admitted he had been drinking, provided a positive road side breath test and was taken to the police station where he was found to have 113 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, the legal limit is 35.

At the station, it was further revealed he had been banned from driving for five years in 2002 with a requirement he re-take his test, which he had never done.

In mitigation, John Mewies said Whitaker had suffered the death of his elderly mother shortly before Christmas and a week before his home had been hit by fire.

Mr Mewies said Whitaker had been his mother's carer for some years and had been in the process of organising her funeral when his home and his personal possessions had gone up in flames.

Alternative accommodation had been offered by the housing association, but in Preston, and so Whitaker had been living in a friend's car, which had been declared off the road and parked in the social club car park.

On January 2, he had spent most of the day drinking at the club before starting the car up and driving the short distance to a friend's house, said Mr Mewies.

Whitaker, who gave the temporary address of Mire Close, Cowling, also admitted driving without insurance and without an MOT certificate. He was also fined £175 and ordered to pay costs of £85 and £60 surcharge.