SINGLE parent Leonora Daniel was let off a six-month speeding ban because magistrates believed she would struggle to get her young daughter to school.

Daniel, who already had nine penalty points on her driving licence for previous speeding offences, faced a possible six-month ban at Wycombe Magistrates Court on Monday last week.

But magistrates took pity on the 38-year-old single mother, of The Spinney, in High Wycombe, and instead dished out a two-month ban, taking into account her 'exceptional circumstances'.

Clerk to the court Nigel Rennell read a statement of facts to the court that Daniel had been caught on the Gatso speed camera on February 10 at 5.29pm doing 38mph along the Little Marlow Road, in Marlow, which is a 30mph zone.

However Daniel, who works at an investment bank in London, told the court she already had to get up well before 6am with her young daughter to get to work and get her daughter to school.

She said that there were no buses running down her road at that time and she had to take her daughter to her mother's house so she could get to school.

The 38-year-old added: "Everyday I go to work on the 6.04am train."

She said her mother could not drive and she did not get home from work until 8pm so life without a car would prove extremely hard.

Alan Frost, chairman of the magistrates, said: "We have considered whether this is a case of exceptional hardship and we have noted that you are a single parent."

She was given a driving ban for two months, fined £400 and £35 costs.