A PORSCHE driver with an “atrocious record” of driving whilst disqualified was caught behind the wheel of a sports car just months after his latest ban.

Lewis Page was handed two driving bans last year alone. The previous year he had been twice convicted of driving while disqualified.

But the 27-year-old, of Prospero Way, Haydon End, narrowly avoided a jail sentence after magistrates heard he had served a 14-week spell in jail at the start of this year for another driving whilst disqualified conviction.

Deborah Slater, chairman of the bench at Swindon Magistrates’ Court, reacted with horror to Page’s list of previous convictions for breaching court orders.

“Frankly, your previous record is atrocious and it’s only because this offence was committed before the offences for which you were sentenced to imprisonment that we have decided,” she said.

The bench sentenced him to 26 weeks in jail, suspended for 24 months and handed him another driving disqualification, this time for 36 months.

“We must warn you very strongly if you breach this suspended sentence order you will end up in jail for possibly up to a year,” Ms Slater added.

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Magistrates were told Page had been convicted at his trial in January of driving while disqualified.

He had denied driving a Porsche Panamera past Gablecross Police Station on November 1 last year. The court heard he was spotted behind the wheel by a police officer.

Page pleaded not guilty to driving whilst disqualified and without insurance.

Defending, Paul Gilmartin said his client maintained he had not been driving the sports car.

But he could not afford a lawyer for the trial and had then attempted to represent himself in court. He found it “all went badly wrong and he was convicted.”

The solicitor told magistrates: “Mr Page clearly wins the award for the worst record of the morning. He’s not proud of that record.”

He asked the magistrates to give Page the chance to show he had learned his lesson.

“It’s a poor history, there is no doubt about that at all,” Mr Gilmartin said.

“But this is an old offence from November last year. He has received a substantial custodial sentence and there is no evidence of further offences.”

He added: “If he’s stupid enough to breach a suspended sentence order imposed today he will receive double the time he would get normally.”

Mr Gilmartin said his client would not be “daft enough” to breach the order.

In addition to the suspended jail sentence, Page was ordered to pay £680 in prosecution costs along with a contribution of £115 towards victim services.