A TERMINALLY ill pensioner who drove without a licence for 45 years before police caught her using a fake has been condemned by a sheriff yesterday as she was hit with a fine for her antics.

Mary Burke, who is suffering from lung cancer and only has between six months and two years to live, drove for nearly five decades – despite having never sat or passed a driving test.

The 71-year-old’s fake pink paper licence was so good that the authorities were even fooled in to believing it was real when she was given penalty points for speeding in 2002.

But she has now given up driving for good and got rid of her car after her lengthy scheme spectacularly unravelled – landing the first offender in court and leaving her with a criminal record.

She previously pleaded guilty to driving her Mercedes without a licence and using a fake licence and returned to the dock at Dumbarton Sheriff Court yesterday to be sentenced.

As he banned her from driving for a year and fined her £750, reduced from £1,000 as she admitted her guilt, Sheriff William Gallacher said: “You were utterly wilful in relation to your decision to be driving.”

He said driving tests showed that people had “the experience, quality and ability to drive” but that she ignored it, adding: “You said, ‘that doesn’t apply to me, I’ll just drive anyway’. This is a very serious matter.”

Defence solicitor Virgil Crawford said Burke, who lives in a static caravan, has terminal lung cancer, explaining: “She has between six months and two years in respect of that. She accepts she has driven for some time - even before her kids were born and when her kids were young.”

After hearing that she receives £150-per-week from her pension, never planned to drive again and had let a family member get rid of her car, Sheriff Gallacher imposed the fine, allowing her to pay at a rate of £15 per week.