A man of 78 who is in the process of opening a school in Cardiff where he will be teaching has failed in his bid to stay in the driving seat.

Peter Layton, at the time of Cwm Llan at Llangwm, near Corwen, but who said he now lived at Cemaes Bay, told a court how a ban would cause him exceptional hardship. He was caught speeding in Llangollen.

His son was due to start university in Cardiff in September and he and his wife were due to start a new business in the city, he explained.

It was a school in Cardiff Bay where he would be teaching, the family were selling up in North Wales and moving to Cardiff, and between now and October 1 he would need to drive to Cardiff once or twice a week.

It was too expensive to fly and he could not use public transport for the journeys, he said.

Once the school was up and running, then it would be within walking distance.

But until then they would need to travel to the city regularly and his American wife was nervous about driving in the UK and did not like driving at night, he said.

Flintshire Magistrates Court at Mold was told he had nine penalty points on his driving licence from three previous speeding offences – one in 2015 and two in 2016.

He admitted driving his Lexus at 38mph in a 30mph area at Berwyn Road in Llangollen, on February 28 but asked not to be banned under the totting up procedure.

He said he was not ‘a serial speeder’.

Magistrates rejected his claim of exceptional hardship, imposed three penalty points for the latest speeding, and banned him from driving for six months.

They said a ban would clearly cause inconvenience but he would not lose his job or his home.

Magistrates said it gave them absolutely no pleasure to have to disqualify him and while the next few months were ‘going to be ghastly’  he was going to have to make arrangements.