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A private hire driver drove around York for nearly a fortnight in a vehicle without a valid MOT certificate, the city’s magistrates heard.
Brett Estabrooks, 40, picked up 81 fares in the vehicle during that time according to City of York Council.
He drove his passengers on roads that included the city centre, major routes through the city and residential streets.
He now faces a court bill of more than £900.
Estabrooks, of Woolnough Avenue, Tang Hall, pleaded guilty to using a motor vehicle without a valid MOT certificate between January 23 and February 4 this year.
He works for one of the city’s main taxi and private hire firms.
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He represented himself and told York magistrates that although he had received automatic reminders that he needed to take his car for an MOT test, he thought the date was wrong, believing that the purchase date was the expiry date for his current MOT certificate.
But the two were not the same and he had entered the information wrongly in his files.
His car had since passed its MOT without any issues, he said.
Magistrates fined him £160 and ordered him to pay a £64 statutory surcharge and £693 prosecution costs.