A TRAINEE police officer, who jeopardised the career he had always dreamed of when he was caught speeding, escaped a driving ban yesterday.

Magistrates in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, heard how disqualification for 32-year-old Abdul Ghafoor, who joined Cleveland Police last September, would have job repercussions.

When Ghafoor pleaded guilty to speeding at 102mph on the A1(M) at Boroughbridge in North Yorkshire on New Year's Day, his solicitor Gerard Tomkinson said a ban would ''have a serious impact on his ability to maintain his position with the police.''

Ghafoor, of Grange Road, Thornaby, spent eight years in the Army before fulfilling a lifelong ambition to join the police force and is now on an induction course at the University of Teesside.

Mr Tomkinson said Ghafoor would undoubtedly be facing internal disciplinary proceedings.

He said Ghafoor had agreed to collect his 11-year-old daughter from his in-laws' home in Birmingham after she had spent part of the New Year holiday there.

But he put back his departure to the Midlands after his brother was involved in an early-morning road accident.

Because of the delays, Ghafoor had been more anxious than he might have been to get back home.

Ghafoor was fined £200 with £45 costs. He escaped a driving ban when court chairwoman Gillian Horrox added six penalty points to the three already on his licence for a previous speeding offence.

She said the offence was totally unacceptable and added: ''You only need three more points and you are off the road for a considerable period of time."