A DRIVER stopped by police in the early hours of the morning ran off because he was frightened of losing his licence, the town’s magistrates heard on Wednesday.

Leon Charlton, 19, of The Circle, Pinehurst, pleaded guilty to driving without insurance and failing to stop when required to do so by police.

Pauline Lambert, prosecuting, told the court that at 2am on January 22 police saw a Ford Fiesta driving at excess speed. They turned on their lights and sirens in an attempt to get the vehicle to stop, which it did not do.

Eventually the car stopped on Cricklade Road. Two people got out and ran away but down a dead-end road.

Charlton told police the car belonged to a friend and he had borrowed it. The friend had said there were a few problems with the car which needed sorting out.

Charlton said he had a full driving licence but was not insured to drive the car, which is why he had run off.

Representing himself in court Charlton said he had panicked when he was stopped because he knew he was not insured and did not want to lose his licence.

He had borrowed the car from a friend because he needed it to get to work and in return said he would sort out the brakes and wheel wobble that were troubling the owner.

He told the bench he expected to be disqualified from driving because in November he had also been caught driving without insurance. But the magistrates found that Charlton had a clean licence because the points from the previous offence had not yet been added.

Fining Charlton £120 for driving without insurance and imposing the mandatory six penalty points on his licence, the bench said he could continue driving until such time as the points from the previous offence were added.

He was also ordered to pay court costs of £85 and a victim surcharge of £30. There was no separate penalty for failing to stop.