A CLASSIC car dealer has been given another motoring ban and ordered to complete community service after admitting driving while disqualified.

Simon John Robinson was already serving a three-year ban from 2008 for dangerous driving and driving with excess alcohol after he led police on a nine-mile chase the wrong way on the A1(M), reaching 70mph and causing the road to be closed. He was jailed for nine months for dangerous driving.

He also had a previous conviction for driving with excess alcohol.

Darlington Magistrates’ Court heard yesterday that in the latest offence, on May 2, the 57-year-old, who owns Simon J Robinson Ltd, near Coatham Mundeville, Darlington, had driven about a mile from his home and back to get a paper from a newsagent’s.

Police had stopped another car near his home in Durham Road, near Coatham Mundeville, and spoke to Robinson as he parked.

John Turner, in mitigation, said Robinson had been in the car for seven minutes.

He said the offence had happened at a difficult time, shortly after his father died of a heart attack and his mother died in an accident.

Mr Turner said: “He felt quite depressed and he felt he just wanted to get out of the house.”

Mr Turner asked magistrates to keep any driving ban to a minimum, because the existing ban affected Robinson’s business.

Probation officer Brenda Robinson said he would be suitable for a work placement on a project restoring old furniture for people on low incomes, run by a church. She said: “There is no reason he cannot do unpaid work.”

William Unsworth, chairman of the bench, told Robinson: “Because of the exceptional circumstances, we are going to give you a community order with 80 hours’ unpaid work.”

They also banned Robinson from driving for six months, meaning his ban will finish in November instead of September, after which he must pass an extended test before driving.

Robinson was also ordered to pay £85 costs.