A wannabe mini-cab driver who forged documents in a bid to get a job has been punished for his “unsophisticated” attempts to fool the council.

Slough man, Nasar Mehmood, applied to be a private-hire driver and at a meeting with Slough Borough Council’s licensing team in March 2018 he twice presented a driving standards agency pass certificate where key dates had been tippexed over and new dates added in.

He also presented a Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead medical examination form - again with the dates removed and altered.

Mehmood, from Oatlands Drive, pleaded guilty to forgery at Reading Magistrates’ Court on January 18.

He was sentenced to a 12-month conditional discharge for 12 months on each count and was ordered to pay a victims surcharge of £20.

Councillor Pavitar K Mann, cabinet member for regulation and consumer protection, said: “Though it is clear Mr Mehmood is no criminal mastermind and his forgery attempts were unsophisticated and somewhat 1980s, we could not stand by and do nothing.

“People using taxis and minicabs in Slough trust those drivers with their safety and for our drivers this is their livelihood.

“To try and get away with trying to scam the system and become a driver when it is possible they haven’t even got a driving licence is an affront to existing drivers and their passengers and we hope the criminal record Mr Mehmood now has to live with is a deterrent to anyone else thinking of attempting to get a licence without the proper documentation.”