A POLICE Community Support officer has escaped a driving ban after telling a court he needed his licence for his job.

PCSO Dave Johnson, who covers the rural Cliviger and Worsthorne area, was instead fined £180 and given another three points.

That means Johnson, 58, of Chislehurst Grove, Burnley, now has 12 points on his licence, which is normally an automatic ban.

He was caught doing 37mph in a 30mph zone in Colne Road, Burnley, on September 30 last year, and would have faced an automatic ban, but he appeared before Burnley Magistrates to plead exceptional hardship and try and keep hold of his licence.

That was the fifth time he had been caught speeding since 2008, and he had received three points on his licence on three occasions and done a speed awareness course on the other.

Johnson said: “I am a PCSO covering a rural area of Burnley and any driving ban is going to impact severely in being able to carry on those duties.

“I visit rural farms and houses that are not served by bus routes and would therefore be difficult to get to."

He said he had been taking his mother and daughter-in-law for lunch at the Prairie pub when the most recent incident had happened, and had withdrawn a “substantial” amount of money from a cash machine on the way.

On arriving at the Prairie he realised he had left the cash in the machine, and was in a rush to get back to see what had happened to the money.