A BANNED driver's plans to start a £100,000 business in Blackburn may have to be put on hold after he was jailed for three months.

Burnley magistrates heard Tameem Mohammed Shafi, 19, was due to open a cash and carry employing four people.

But he was sent to a Young Offenders' Institution after clocking up his second conviction for driving while disqualified.

The bench told the defendant the offence had been premeditated, repeated and committed while he was subject to a community rehabilitation order.

Shafi, of Clarence Street, Blackburn, was convicted after a trial of driving while disqualified , last October. The court was told on Wednesday how he claimed he was not the driver of the vehicle police found on an unmade road off Grane Road, in Haslingden.

Gareth Price, defending, said Shafi now fully accepted he was the driver. He was gripped by panic when stopped by police because he feared a custodial sentence.

The defendant, who had not been speeding, did not think about the consequences of what he did.

Shafi had got business premises and was due to start trading as a cash and carry in June. He was set to employ four people and it was hoped after 12 months the business would turn over £100,000.