A driving test cheat put himself on the road to jail when he posed as a pal who had failed FIFTEEN times.

Eyebrows were raised when wannabe delivery driver Mohammed Al Zafari seemingly sailed through the written test at the Canterbury DVLA test centre.

But waiting to greet him afterwards wasn't an official with his new licence - but a police officer.

A judge has heard that it wasn’t Mr Al Zafari who took the test but his friend Emaad Alkaabi.

Now the 29-year-old dad – who claimed he was just doing his mate a favour – won’t be able to drive for a while after landing himself behind bars.

Alkaabi, from Grays in Essex was jailed for nine months after admitting two charges of making false declarations to the Driving Standards Authority.

"He just didn’t think this through. He just wanted to do his friend a favour..." - Laura Phillips, defending

And the judge, Recorder Michael Turner told him he was surprised that Al Zafari wasn’t with him in the dock at Canterbury Crown Court.

Prosecutor Mukhtiar Singh revealed that the two had tried the same scam four months earlier in May 2014 at Southend Test Centre.

There, staff checked the photographs on the provisional licence and realised it didn’t match the man who had turned up to sit the test.

So when in September last year, the two arrived at Canterbury, staff were alerted - but allowed Alkaabi to take the test.

After being arrested he told police that his friend had failed the theory 15 times but was desperate to land a job delivering leaflets for a fast food restaurant and earn more money.

Defending barrister Laura Phillips said: “He just didn’t think this through. He just wanted to do his friend a favour because Mr Al Jafari wanted a better job to send money home to his family in Iraq.

“No money changed hands between the two. He was just doing his friend a favour because he knew he was having difficulties passing the theory test and offered to take the test for him.”

But the judge said it was a very serious offence because it would have led to someone being able to drive on the road, with insurance, who hadn’t passed a test – and could have landed a job fraudulently.

“There are problems with these types of frauds being committed which the DSA are spending an increasing amount of time try to combat.

“The message has to go out that these frauds are unacceptable,” he added.