A grandfather with driving ambition is living proof that you are never too old to learn.

Bashir Ahmed, who has ten grandchildren, defied critics to pass his driving test at the age of 79.

Mr Ahmed, of Rhodesway, Allerton, said fellow learner drivers poked fun at him when he went to take his theory test and said he was too old to start driving. But after 40 lessons with a Huddersfield-based instructor, the proud pensioner has realised his ambition and has already started using his new-found ability to explore the area.

Mr Ahmed, who came to Bradford from a disputed part of Kashmir in 1956, said the driving license had given him a new lease of life and that he felt like a 17-year-old again.

He said: “People told me I was overage and that I was not going to pass the test – but that didn’t bother me.”

His son, Tariq Ahmed, said: “Hope-fully this will give hope to others who give up on life after 50. He is going to drive all over England now. Yesterday, he said he was just going for a little drive but ended up going up past Keighley and towards Skipton.

“He is retired so he is going to discover things, go here and there, go around the country and visit places.”

His son-in-law, Ejaz Hussain, said: “He has been trying for quite a long time. It was a dream for him to drive on these roads. He’s quite old so he went to automatic cars.

“He is enjoying it. People told him he was too old, but he didn’t listen to them.

“Sometimes we are at work and if he wanted to go somewhere like the shops he had to wait for us to come back and take him there. That’s what made him more interested to do the test.”

Although the DVLA does not keep official records, there are reckoned to be only a small handful of pensioners who pass their driving test each year.

In 2003, Lord Renton, then 94 and at the time the oldest peer in the House of Lords, made headlines when he passed his driving test for the first time.

He had been able to spend decades as a motorist without the need to pass a test as he had taken to the road even before the introduction of driving licences in 1934.