An Iraqi refugee who tried to cheat on his driving theory test by smuggling in a Bluetooth earpiece to help him answer questions set in English has been banned from the roads – but spared jail.
Masood Noori, 46, who had repeatedly failed the exam, was spotted by suspicious test centre staff with the earpiece hidden beneath headphones when he went to sit his theory in May 2018.
A court heard the father-of-five had planned to use an accomplice elsewhere to feed him the answers to the questions after previously struggling with the language barrier.
But his plan was foiled when employees noticed the earpiece, thought it would not have worked anyway after he had to put his phone in a locker before sitting the test.
Masood Noori, 46, who had repeatedly failed the exam, was spotted by suspicious test centre staff with the earpiece hidden beneath headphones when he went to sit his theory in May 2018
Noori had already failed the exam on two previous occasions and went on to retake it unsuccessfully six further times, before eventually passing.
But he had his driving licence taken away by a judge after he pleaded guilty to possessing an article for use in fraud at Warwick Crown Court on Tuesday.
Noori, of Coventry, was given a 12-month community order with 180 hours of unpaid work and was banned from driving for a year and ordered to pay £1,786 costs.
Sentencing Judge Peter Cooke said: ‘If you set out deliberately and dishonestly to subvert part of the driving test procedure, which is all in place to keep us all safe on the roads, then you put yourself at grave risk of being sent to prison.
‘You have been living in the United Kingdom since 2001. You are a family man, and you have not previously been convicted of any crime.
‘I intend to punish you, and punish you severely, for your attempt to subvert the test system, not just to reflect what you did, but to send out an appropriate message to anyone who might be tempted to do the same.
‘It is extremely appropriate that part of your punishment should be to deprive you of the privilege of being permitted to drive on the roads.
‘That means your 2008 VW Golf is no use to you or your family.
‘If you offend in a way which requires a Government agency like the DVSA to undertake its own investigation, then you can expect to pick up the bill and not expect the tax payer to do so.
‘How you arrange your family finances is for you, not for me, but if I were you I would sell the car.’
He had his driving licence taken away by a judge after he pleaded guilty to possessing an article for use in fraud at Warwick Crown Court on Tuesday
Prosecutor Olivia Maginn said that in May 2018 Noori arrived at the Coventry driving test centre to take the theory part of his test.
As with all candidates, he was required to put his phone and any other devices into a locker.
But as Noori put on the headphones to begin the test, staff noticed he had a Bluetooth earpiece in his ear, so they halted the test.
When he was interviewed, he admitted taking the Bluetooth device in with him, but claimed he had found it outside the test centre and was not planning to use it.
Preet-Paul Tutt, defending, said Noori was a Kurd who had fled from Iraq in 2001, and was granted asylum and obtained a British passport in 2009.
Having learned to drive 26 years ago in Iraq, he was told he would have to take a test here, and in 2010 he successfully sat the theory test, with questions in Kurdish Sorani.
But Noori then went back to Iraq to see his wife, and remained there until he returned with his family in 2017.
He was told he had to re-sit the theory test, which by then had to be done in English, and he failed it on two occasions.
So he resorted to using the Bluetooth device as ‘an act of desperation’ to help him pass the test and increase his chances of getting a job to support his wife and children.
Mr Tutt added: ‘He had left his phone in the locker, so there was no way this was going to succeed.
‘He has retaken the theory test on five or six further occasions and failed, but did finally pass in August 2019.’