A FUNERAL director blamed a dying man for driving his hire car in a desperate bid to dodge penalty points on his licence.

Community leader Haji Jaber even continued with his “stupid” lie after photographs showed a woman behind the wheel.

A judge jailed Jaber for four months after saying it seemed he was trying to protect the real driver from a speeding fine.

The Volvo courtesy car was clocked in Billingham, near Stockton, in October 2010, Teesside Crown Court heard yesterday.

When Jaber received documents through the post, he claimed one of his tenants, John Williams, had been driving the car.

Despite a fuzzy photograph showing an Asian woman in a headscarf behind the wheel, Jaber, 48, persisted with his story.

At a trial at magistrates’ court, he produced what amounted to a confession from Mr Williams – who had died in the meantime.

Further statements purporting to be from Mr Williams’ partner, the boss of the hire company and Jaber’s son backed up his lie.

The statement from the hire firm boss said Mr Williams had picked up the car, and his partner agreed with that in her document.

Suspicious police discovered the man who was being blamed had never had a driving licence and was seriously ill at the time.

Jaber, of Kensington Road, Middlesbrough, later admitted perverting the course of justice and failing to provide driver information.

His barrister, Richard Bennett, was asked by Judge Peter Armstrong what motivated the elaborate plot, and he said: “Stupidity.”

He added: “There was nothing in it for him... this was a rather ham-fisted attempt to deceive the police and the courts.”

Mr Bennett provided references from councillors and other community leaders praising the work of Jaber.

He said the defendant, who performs funerals as part of his duties, is a “point of contact” between the Islamic faiths and others.

Jaber had also been a representative on a criminal justice body in Middlesbrough before being asked to leave after his arrest.

Judge Armstrong told him: “When required to provide information to the police, you should have thought your first duty was to be truthful.

“You, of all people, should have known that this offending cannot be tolerated by the courts because it strikes at the heart of the legal system.”