AN ALBANIAN car washer was caught out when a police interpreter couldn’t understand him.

Ervis Hasanaj handed over an Italian driving licence when he was stopped by police in Marlborough on September 5.

The constable who stopped the 23-year-old suspected he had been taking drugs and hauled him off to the police station.

Taking the lead from Hasanaj’s dodgy ID, police arranged for an Italian interpreter to speak to him over LanguageLine – a phone translation service common in hospitals and police stations.

But the driver couldn’t understand the translator.

Prosecuting, Colin Meeke said: “Clearly, he didn’t speak Italian. LanguageLine couldn’t speak to him. Thereafter, he was as cooperative as he could be.”

A few weeks before his fake ID was unmasked, he had produced the same driving licence to be charged with driving without insurance.

Hasanaj was said to have paid £15,000 to be smuggled into the UK and was working in a car wash and sending money home to Albania.

A DVLA expert had confirmed the Italian driving licence, made in the name of Philippo Rosso, was a forgery.

Grace Flynn, defending, said her client had pleaded to the charge at the earliest opportunity and was of previous good character with no convictions.

Jailing Hasanaj four four months, Judge Jason Taylor QC said: “These are serious offences. Having a false identity strikes a blow at the fabric of society and enables individuals to bypass or evade responsibility or penalty.”