A DISQUALIFIED driver who lied to police when they caught him behind the wheel has been jailed for eight weeks by magistrates.

Geoffrey Newport was just four months into a year and a half ban when officers stopped him in a friend's car on Westcott Place.

And after he was finally uncovered he claimed he couldn't remember whether his disqualification which doesn't end until July next year was over.

Rhys Davis, prosecuting, told the court that police stopped a green Volvo shortly before 6pm on Saturday May 29.

He said officers spoke to the driver who told them he was called Gary Newton and lived on Marney Road in Grange Park.

Although he had no documenta-tion, Mr Davis said Newport signed a vehicle repair form in the false name. The officers were suspicious about his identity and told him they would follow him home and he took them to a block of flats on Marney Road.

Mr Davis said they saw him go in with his own set of keys and he showed them a hospital medical tag in the name of Gary Newton.

But after they carried out further inquiries they discovered that the man driving the car was Newport and they went back to arrest him.

Mr Davis said officers discovered that the flats he took them to on Marney Road were actually on Gerard Walk.

When he was questioned he admitted he had been driving and that he panicked and gave false details to the police.

He told officers that he was not sure whether his disqualification had run out.

The court was told that he had been banned from the road for 18 months in January and so was not entitled to drive until July 25, 2005.

Newport, of Gerard Walk, pleaded guilty to driving while disqualified, obstructing a police officer and having no insurance for the vehicle.

Rob Ross, defending, said that his client was a recovering heroin addict who took a large amount of prescription medication for other ailments.

As well as jailing him for eight weeks magistrates imposed another driving ban, which runs out at the same time as his current disqualification.

Tina Clarke