A banned driver was jailed for nine-and-a-half months today (May 31) after going out for a McDonald's in Bushey.

Shkelzen Lashi , 25, who has never passed a test, was disqualified in February this year for driving dangerously in Watford town centre.

Prosecutor Damien Warburton said just two months later he “stuck his fingers up to the court” by getting back behind the wheel.

He was found by the police next to a crashed car in St Albans, but told officers it had been taken by two men who had run off.

The police were able to prove he had been driving by obtaining CCTV evidence from McDonald's in Bushey which showed he had been behind the wheel there 30 to 40 minutes earlier.

Lashi, of Magpie Close in Enfield, appeared for sentence having pleaded guilty to driving while disqualified and having no insurance.

In February he had driven a blue Audi dangerously on Beecham Grove with no licence or insurance. He was given a 10-month sentence suspended for two years and was banned from holding a licence for 18 months and until he passed an extended test.

Defending, Joe Davidson said Lashi’s girlfriend had gone back to Poland to visit a sick relative at the time. He had “made a stupid mistake and immediately pleaded guilty”.

Jailing him, Recorder Anthony Cartin said: “In February the court gave you the benefit of the doubt by giving you a suspended sentence.

“Just two months later you were found next to a crashed vehicle. You denied driving it and said thieves stole it.

“There was clear evidence you had been to McDonalds in Bushey 30 to 40 minutes earlier in breach of the disqualification.”