A DAIRY worker who regularly ferried milk supplies in a refrigerated tanker in defiance of a driving ban collapsed in court yesterday after being sentenced to prison.

James Robert Smith, 26, had to have medical treatment after Harrogate magistrates jailed him for four months.

Smith, of Lindsay Avenue, York, who pleaded guilty to six counts of driving while disqualified, and six of not having insurance, was also banned for 18 months.

Prosecutor Sarah Tyrer said Smith, who had an appalling driving record, had been disqualified for a year for drink-driving by York magistrates in February, 1999.

He had been working as a fridge operative at Carlton Dairy in Poole Lane at Nun Monkton, near York.

Mrs Tyrer said Smith admitted taking a 7.5 tonne refrigerated tanker out on delivery runs when the dairy was short-staffed on a number of occasions in December, January and February.

In mitigation, Geoffrey Rogers said Smith had genuinely believed his ban had been over and had written to the DVLA in Swansea asking for his driving licence to be returned.