A highly rated driving instructor from Carshalton has been convicted of sexually assaulting an 18-year-old girl during lessons last year.

John French, 64, of Nightingale Road, nibbled the ear of his pupil, touched her leg and suggested that she walk naked around his car.

Police were alerted to the offences when the girl told her mother, who had recommended French because he helped her pass her own driving test.

After a two-day trial at Croydon Crown Court, the instructor was put under a community order and told to attend a sex offenders’ programme.

Judge Stephen Waller told French on Wednesday: “The physical acts were at the lower end of seriousness, but they were humiliating and upsetting to her. There is a breach of trust between you and your pupil and, indeed, her mother, who had chosen you as a suitable instructor for her daughter.

“Being in the car, the pupil is in a vulnerable situation, of which you took advantage. At the trial you showed little remorse or insight, but there has been some sign of change when you saw the probation officer.”

French, giving evidence, claimed his behaviour was related to his teaching and denied any sexual connotation. Miss Jane Carpenter, for the defence, said: “He now acknowledges that what he did was wrong. This is the first complaint that has come to the police notice.”

French will never work again as a driving instructor.