A YORK driver with 12 penalty points has kept his licence after he told magistrates he had a grocery shop in south Lincolnshire.

Bahadin Aziz was faced with a driving ban when he was tried and convicted of two failures to tell police who was driving his car when it was seen allegedly speeding in Cheshire.

The Tang Hall motorist told Harrogate magistrates he needed his driving licence because otherwise he would not be able to run his shop in Sleaford.

They decided not to disqualify him under the totting-up procedure.

But he has to pay £2,600 in fines and other court costs.

Sleaford and York are more than 90 miles apart and Aziz told the court it takes him an hour and 40 minutes to drive from his home to the shop.

Aziz, of Tang Hall Lane, York, denied failure to tell police who was driving his car when it was allegedly speeding in Winsford near Crewe in Cheshire on May 10 and a separate charge of failure to tell police who was driving his car when it was allegedly doing 61 mph on the 50 mph A555 Manchester Airport Eastern Link Road on February 14 last year.

Magistrates fined him £1800 and ordered him to pay a £180 statutory surcharge and £620 prosecution costs and gave him six penalty points for each offence, making a total of 12 penalty points.

Aziz told Harrogate magistrates he has tried to find a place to live closer to his shop in Sleaford but has not succeeded.

He said he travels to the shop at least five times a week and sometimes seven times a week, and that it is open from 1pm to 11pm.

He also goes to a Doncaster cash and carry every third day en route to his shop and once every seven to ten days he goes to a Manchester cash and carry.

He told magistrates although he employs three people, none of them can drive and he cannot get suppliers to deliver goods for him.

Magistrates warned him that his grocery business will not save him from a driving ban if he gets any more points in the next three years.