A ROAD safety group today slammed a cab firm boss who ran a Burnley firm using cars with no insurance.

Father-of-five Arshad Mahmood, 38, used fake insurance documents to get taxi licences for his former business Main Line Taxis.

The firm has now been taken over and is operating legally.

Burnley Crown Court heard Mahmood was behind the two-year crime but suspicion fell on his innocent operator Susan Hancock who unwittingly took the documents to the town hall.

Mahmood, a convicted drink driver and now bankrupt, went to Pakistan after he was arrested and bailed and had not returned when he had been due to face trial.

Mahmood, of Westmorland Street, Nelson, admitted six counts of obtaining services by deception, between December 2000 and December 2002.

The defendant, who has served the equivalent of a seven-week jail term on remand, was given 200 hours' community punishment when he appeared at court on Friday.

The case came just weeks after the Government announced a crackdown on the estimated 1 in 20 drivers without insurance, including new powers to issue fixed penalty notices to drivers who ignore renewal notices.

A spokesman for the AA condemned his actions and said: "This is totally irresponsible. Anything could have happened and in the event of an accident the innocent passengers would have been left in the lurch.

"Actions like this are unacceptable."

Sentencing, Judge Barbara Watson told Mahmood his actions had been serious, but accepted his actions were out of character and that he was an educated, hard working man with no previous convictions for dishonesty. The defendant was said to be at low risk of reoffending.

Amy Nicholson, prosecuting, said in October 2002 a police officer carried put a random check on a driver and he produced a fake insurance document. They went to the taxi office and arrested Mrs Hancock. When the defendant found out, he went to the police station and was also arrested.

The prosecutor said Mahmood told police nobody else was responsible for getting the insurance documents. He said he had brought them off a man in Bradford for £3,000 and believed them to be genuine.

Paul Hague, defending, said Mahmood was industrious, had kept his family and had not indulged in crime. When he lost his licence though drink, his business fall on hard times.

Mahmood subsequently realised the documents could not be genuine. Mr Hague added he defendant, who "muddied the waters" by going to Pakistan to see his sick father and not returning for trial, was now bankrupt and had to start afresh.