MARLBOROUGH builder Barry Morris has been spared a jail sentence after magistrates heard he had taken on a foreman at £720 a week so he could undertake a sentence of community punishment.

The 48-year-old builder had pleaded guilty at a hearing on July 12 to driving while disqualified in Marlborough on June 17, just five months after being convicted of a similar offence.

Morris, of Downs Lane, Manton Hollow, had been given a year's driving ban by Swindon magistrates last year for drink driving. But Kennet magistrates, sitting at Andover Magistrates Court on Thursday heard from Richard Thomas, prosecuting, that on January 24 this year police officers on patrol in Marlborough High Street saw a Honda Prelude being driven very slowly.

Questioned by police, Morris admitted to driving while disqualified. He appeared before the Kennet bench in Devizes on February 4 when he told the court that he had had a phone call from his son whose car had run out of fuel in a rural area, leaving him stranded.

He was sentenced to 120 hours' community punishment.

Then, on June 17 Morris was again seen in Marlborough by the same police officer, this time behind the wheel of a Volvo 760. He was followed home and again arrested for driving while disqualified. His driving ban still had three weeks to run.

Andrew Watts-Jones, defending, said Morris had a completely clean record until what he called the "catalogue of disaster" began when he was stopped for drink driving last year.

He said: "Mr Morris was only slightly over the limit but did not take the option of a blood test which could well have proved negative."

Mr Watts-Jones told the court that Morris was currently undertaking a million-pound renovation of a country house in the Marlborough area, giving employment to 20 people.

The most recent incident of driving while disqualified occurred while trying to run the project. The building worker who was doubling as his driver had knocked off with the rest of the site crew but an emergency had arisen.

Morris was unable to contact anyone because the card on his mobile phone had run out of credit. He had driven to a local shop to charge it up again.

If Morris went to jail, his defence argued, the renovation project would collapse, 20 people would be out of work and the clients would be homeless.

Magistrates were asked to revoke the community punishment order handed down in February but Mr Watts-Jones pointed out that probation officers had indicated that Morris was unlikely to be able to undertake the work required because of business demands.

But Morris had recently employed a foreman who would look after the project while he did community service, effectively using the profit from the job.

Morris was given 180 hours' community punishment, banned from driving for nine months and ordered him to pay £55 court costs.