A motorist in court for a string of driving offences was banned from the roads - only to immediately get in his BMW and head home.

But police had been tipped off that he was likely to ignore the court order and soon tracked him down.

Alan Trim was pulled over on the A10 at Southery and admitted to officers that he had been banned minutes earlier at King's Lynn Magistrates' Court on May 5.

Magistrates were told on Thursday that the 36-year-old had been disqualified for six months under the totting up procedure.

Prosecutor Denise Holland said: “It was at this court. When he was disqualified he would have been warned about the consequences of him driving.

“Unfortunately he drove home to Mildenhall.

“Information was given to the police that there was a suspicion that he would do this.”

Mrs Holland told the bench that the offence fell into the highest sentencing guidelines category because of the speed with which the court order was broken."

“You can’t really get any more recent than the day it was done,” she added.

Trim, of Hobson Avenue, Trumpington, pleaded guilty to driving while disqualified and having no insurance.

Charlotte Winchester, mitigating, said he runs his own commercial cleaning company and employs 32 people.

He had attended court in May in the knowledge that he could be banned as a totter for speeding offences, she added.

However, he had not instructed a solicitor to represent him and was stunned when the bench did not accept his argument that a ban would cause exceptional hardship.

Miss Winchester said: “He felt he was capable of dealing with it himself but the bench did not accede to the information he put forward. He was taken aback and shocked by that.

“He hadn’t prepared himself for the fact that he would be disqualified. He just made the stupid decision to get back home and used his vehicle to do that.”

Miss Winchester acknowledged that it was a serious matter and had warned Trim that the starting point under the sentencing guidelines was custody.

However, the bench pulled back from an immediate prison term and gave him 12 weeks’ custody, suspended for one year.

He was also told to pay £128 victim surcharge and £105 costs.