Elderly NSW road pest avoids jail

An elderly Sydney road pest banned from driving until 2092 has had a jail sentence quashed and been handed a four-month suspended sentence after an appeal.

Nathaniel Barker, 76, has been charged 25 times with driving while disqualified and on Tuesday appealed against a year-long prison stint after he was caught behind the wheel without a licence last March.

He is still prohibited from driving but will not have to spend time in jail after Judge Helen Syme quashed the original sentence in the Downing Centre District Court on Tuesday.

Barker was caught driving last year while taking his former partner's car from her home at Waterloo to refuel it at an Alexandria service station, the court heard.

He had received a phone call from his daughter saying his wife had no money or petrol in her car.

The court also heard he had complied with previous orders and had not offended for about six years before he was nabbed in 2012.

The crown pushed for Barker to serve the year in jail.

"He hasn't displayed any remorse," prosecutor James Dorney said.

Judge Syme agreed, telling the court "nothing seems to have sunk in".

"Of concern to me... is that Mr Barker to this day still has very limited insight into the consequences of his driving," she said.

But she said a year in jail was a significant sentence for a traffic offence and even more so for a man of Barker's years.

After quashing the original sentence, Judge Syme warned Barker about the conditions attached to his four-month suspended sentence and four-month bond.

"If you drive again during the course of this bond... there will be nothing that will save you from going to jail for the full term of this sentence."

Barker will walk from the court on Tuesday afternoon after completing the necessary paperwork.