When 76-year-old Mubarak Sear was told he was too old to get a driving licence in his home town of Milton Keynes he came up to Bradford – and passed with flying colours.

Nafis Ishaq, of i-Drive, a Bradford-based driving school, said Mr Sear contacted him after being rejected by two driving instructors where he lived for being “not fit to drive”.

Mr Ishaq, who had helped Mr Sear’s relatives to pass their driving test about a year ago, said he decided to take on the challenge to help prove age does not necessarily have to hold people back.

He said: “I feel with his hard work, his commitment and dedication he’s proved everyone wrong who has said he’s wasting his time and he can’t do it.

“He’s gone out there and proved that age is not a factor.

“I think he is an inspiration to a lot of elderly people, to show that they can do it.

“He had been driving for 35 years in a foreign country – his habits and way of thinking were based on knowledge from abroad. So we had to adapt all of that experience into British standard driving, which took a lot of commitment and dedication from him to enable him to get up to a pass standard.

“He was rejected from instructors in the Milton Keynes area, saying he was not fit to drive.

“He took that as a personal challenge, saying ‘my age should not hold me back’.

“There were a lot of people saying to him he was wasting his time and a lot of people being quite negative. He’s proved them wrong.”

Mr Sear stayed with a relative in Bradford for six weeks, taking a driving lesson each day before passing his test at Heaton Test Centre on Tuesday.

He said: “I’m very pleased I passed.

“I worked hard and my instructor helped me day and night – he is a good person.”