Clueless driver failed test five times so asked his friend to take it for him - who also messed it up

Dim-witted Hadi Mohammed, 28, and Derbas Hamed, 25, cheated the test system and were both jailed after admitting the fraud.

Gloucester Crown Court heard that Hamed, a qualified driver, turned up at the test centre in the city pretending to be Mohammed.

Jailed: Derbas Hamed (left) and Hadi Mohammed (right) 

But suspicions were immediately aroused when he arrived driving his own car without 'L' plates and without anyone else in the vehicle.

He then took the test in Mohammed's name and failed 'in a spectacular fashion', making 16 driving mistakes in the process.

Ex-Iraqi-police officer Mohammed was jailed for two months and father-of-two Hamed, who has a previous conviction for fraud after he impersonated someone else for a driving theory test, was sent to prison for three months.

Both men, from Bristol, pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation, and were jailed by Recorder Michael De Navarro QC.

Rosie Walsh, prosecuting, said Mohammed claimed he had been too tired to take the test, and so hatched a plan with his friend as he was receiving a lift to the test centre.

Giles Nelson, defending Mohammed, added: 'It was an extremely unsophisticated fraud, ridiculously unsophisticated and amateurish.

Lloyd Jenkins, defending Hamed, said his client had 'realised what he was doing was wrong so he deliberately failed the test in a spectacular fashion' with 16 driving faults.

'He got nowhere near succeeding and is thoroughly ashamed. Since coming to this country from Iraq he is desperate to find work and needs a driving licence.'

Recorder Mr De Navarro told both defendants: 'This is a very serious offence and had you both been successful a completely unqualified driver and not a very good one at that would have been let loose on the roads.

'This would have meant a danger to other road-users and only a custodial sentence is justified. I do not accept Mr Hamed's contention that he failed the test deliberately.'