A MAN who admits to having a very poor driving record this week blamed the fact that he suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome for the number of times he has been banned from driving.

Keith John Mileham, 35, of Chowle Farm, Great Coxwell, Faringdon, appeared before magistrates in Swindon on Tuesday asking for a motoring case heard in his absence to be re-opened.

Representing himself in court, Mileham, who had pleaded guilty by post to driving a Ford Transit van without a driving licence or insurance at Church Hill, Wroughton on October 16 this year, told the bench he could not attend the previous hearing of the case because he had been in prison for other, unrelated, matters.

Mileham told the court he had been stopped by police while driving the Transit van on August 8 this year and asked to produce his driving documents at a police station. He claimed he had sent the documents to the wrong department.

While in HMP Bullingdon he had applied to the DVLA to renew his licence after a previous ban and was told that he had been disqualified again until 2019. He said he was unaware that the case had been heard in his absence.

Magistrates agreed to re-open the case and re-hear it.

Mileham told the bench that his life had changed since the last offence. He had become the primary carer for his mother-in-law, who suffered from chronic lung disease and cancer and he had to drive her to hospital for her chemo therapy, epofusion and platelets.

His partner, who suffered from depression, also depended on him, especially since learning that his mother had cancer.

Mileham was otherwise unemployed and in receipt of Universal Credit.

He said he used to live in Fairford, from where he ran a small skip-hire business, Rapid Metal Recycling. He had been stopped by police while driving a skip lorry and defects had been found on the vehicle.

He was later again stopped by police while driving the same vehicle and defects were again found. He had then been prohibited from driving any company vehicle but had driven the transit van in October because it was an emergency, another of the company’s vehicles had broken down.

“I know I have a very poor driving record,” he told the bench. “I have Asperger’s Syndrome and one trait, as you know, is a knowledge of one particular thing. With me it’s engines.

“I can strip an engine down and get it running ten times better than it did when it came out of the factory. That has been my downfall.

“I have had a large number of disqualifications since I was 14 and I have spent a large number of years in custody. One more and I will lose my family.

“I am 35 and it is time I got on with my life. I want to get a full driving licence and become ‘legal’. It would mean a great deal to my partner and my family.”

Bench chairman Diana Crockett told Mileham he had the most shocking record of no insurance. She added however that perhaps now that he was settled with a partner his life would go in a different direction.

She said the bench had decided to be lenient because of his caring role for his mother-in-law.

Mileham was disqualified for 60 days, fined £120 and ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £30. There was no separate penalty for driving without a valid licence.

Mrs Crockett told him: “You can look at engines but don’t drive them.”