After admitting at Leeds Crown Court to seven counts of fraud, a fake driving instructor from Earlsheaton earned £9,000 by duping learners with a “dangerous” scam, a court heard. Paul Berry, 44, of Jilling Ing Park, was jailed for four months.
The hearing was told that between September 2007 and October 2010 Berry failed to qualify as a driving instructor but then masqueraded as one.
Berry earned £9,250 in lesson fees from a number of learners during that time, prosecutor Simon Ostler, , said.
Berry’s solicitor, Richard Clews, said: “The defendant did attempt to qualify for as long as he could afford to do so. Unfortunately, he didn’t get through the last part of a three-part test and couldn’t afford to re-take it.”
He added: “The defendant is sorry, ashamed and embarrassed at what he has done.”
Judge Kerry Macgill said in sentencing Berry: “It was an uninsured and, in my view, dangerous service.
“People who send their children to learn to drive need to have confidence that the person they are getting into the vehicle with is fully qualified.
“This is the kind of offence that strikes at the heart of what we have in this country, which is regulation and confidence in a system.”