A BOGUS driving instructor who defrauded young people out of thousands of pounds was given a six month jail term today.
Deekan Vig, 40, who lives in Southgate with his parents, admitted giving his pupils about ten driving lessons a week for four years despite failing the exam needed to give him accreditation by the Driving Standards Agency.
Recorder Geraldine Clark said his actions showed “an element of preying on teenagers’ inexperience” and amounted to a “type of confidence fraud practised against 17 and 18-year-olds”.
He was sentenced for three counts of fraud at Wood Green Crown Court relating to three learner drivers who paid him £3,300 for lessons at the end of 2007 and the start of 2008.
Vig, who has one previous conviction for theft from an employer in February 1991, had worked previously as a courier and delivery driver, and was found to have helped some of his students to get their driver’s licence.
Mrs Clark said the case was “too serious” not to merit a custodial sentence.
She said: “You led three young people to believe you were an approved driving instructor when you were not qualified and not entitled to charge for lessons.
“The sums involved were pretty large when added up, with £3,300 just from these three cases alone.”
She said while he had not explicitly lied about his qualifications, he had led them to believe he was an approved instructor by showing some of them an insurance document which gave driving instructor as his profession.
Silas Reid, defence barrister, said his client had “tried to stick his head in the sand” by not gaining the proper accreditation, and he had subsequently managed to pass his driving instructors exams.
He said: “This is a man who had managed to destroy, by his own stupid and irresponsible actions, a career which he had set his hopes on for years. This conviction means that career is now gone, and all those years invested will be for nothing.”
Vig was given three six-month suspended sentences to run concurrently as well as 100 hours of community service
