A corrupt court official who helped more than 70 motorists to falsify their driving records and escape bans has been jailed for six years.

David Kelly, 47, committed a "gross breach of trust" in a betrayal of the criminal justice system, his colleagues and the general public, said a judge.

Debt-ridden Kelly operated the scam from his workplace in the admin department at Liverpool Magistrates' Court.

He assisted 71 drivers in removing details of their convictions, disqualifications and penalty points on 110 occasions between 2004 and 2010.

Preston Crown Court heard that drivers would pass on cash to "middle men" who had contacts within the Liverpool underworld and their details would be handed to Kelly. The defendant then sent forms from the court to the DVLA to request the alterations.

Sentencing him, Judge Graham Knowles QC said: "Liverpool City Magistrates' (Court) ran like every other magistrates' court.

"The magistrates, the clerks and the office staff dealt with penalty points, so did the staff of the Central Ticketing Office. Civil servants in Swansea (at the DVLA) kept the drivers' records.

"But unknown to all of these decent people, you, Kelly, were running a corrupt business at the court, bypassing justice after everyone thought it had been done."

It is understood that most of the corrupt payments from members of the public were made in pubs across Liverpool with £100 thought to be the going rate for erasing one penalty point.

DVLA officers in Swansea first became suspicious of Kelly in September 2008 when he faxed a number of bogus forms, said the Crown.

But Kelly, of Toxteth, was cleared to continue working after an internal investigation and was finally caught in April 2010 when court staff discovered bogus forms and driver details in a confidential waste sack.

Yesterday, a jury found him guilty of conspiracy to pervert the court of justice.