Suspended term for blind driver

Aziz denied dangerous driving

A blind man convicted of dangerous driving, after police spotted his car on the wrong side of the road, has been given a suspended jail sentence.

Omed Aziz, 31, from Darlaston, West Midlands, who was being directed by an allegedly banned driver, was given 12 weeks in prison suspended for a year.

He has also been banned from driving for three years and ordered to take an extended driving test.

Magistrates heard he reached up to 35mph (56km/h) in a built-up area.

T-shirt 'offensive'

Aziz, who lost his eyes in a bomb blast in Iraq, was driving through Oldbury on 23 April.

He was arrested along with a 21-year-old Iraqi at about 2300 BST, after police followed their car along Oldbury Ringway and into West Bromwich Street, the court was told.

Iraq-born Aziz, from Birmingham Street, Darlaston, denied dangerous driving but had pleaded guilty at a previous hearing to driving with no MOT, no licence and no insurance.

Magistrates were required by law to order Aziz to take an extended driving test, if he ever decides to apply for a driving licence.

Proceedings were delayed for nine minutes on Monday after the chairman of the bench, Richard Knight, declared Aziz's T-shirt to be offensive and ordered him to remove it.

The defendant, who has just three fingers on his right hand and suffers from leg tremors and is partially deaf, receives £520-a-month in incapacity benefit.

He was also ordered to pay £364 in prosecution costs.