Optician didn’t see extensive damage to car

and he estimated that he had driven for about 40 miles before being stopped. He conceded that he could hear a scraping noise as the mud-guard touched the front wheel.

Nawaz pleaded guilty to a charge of dangerous driving back in August and his barrister Stephen Wood said the defendant would have to face a disciplinary hearing before the General Optical Council to decide if he was “a fit and proper person” to carry on working as an optician.

Mr Wood said his client had only taken a “cursory look” at the damage and the whole court process had been a shaming and salutory experience for Nawaz.

He submitted that Nawaz, who had no previous convictions, was a highlyqualified, hard-working and valued member of society.

Mr Wood described the incident as a “very negligent offence” rather than the usual cases of dangerous driving involving police pursuits.

Judge Neil Davey QC said he had taken account of Nawaz’s previous good character and early guilty plea in deciding to impose the community order rather than a jail term or suspended prison sentence.

He said things could have gone disastrously wrong if some part of the damaged Mercedes, which was being leased by Nawaz, had been flung into the path of another vehicle. But he said Nawaz did not realise just how much of a danger the damaged car presented to other people.

Nawaz will have to do 100 hours’ unpaid work for the community as part of his sentence and he was also banned from driving for 12 months.

At the end of the ban he will also have to take and pass an extended test before lawfully driving on the roads again.