Warning for judge after six-month driving ban

A deputy High Court judge and head of an Oxford college has been given a formal warning after he was banned from driving for six months.

John Bowers KC told the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office (JCIO) in February that he had 12 points on his driving licence after four separate offences.

The principal of Brasenose College, he told the JCIO that he was "just above" the speed limit on three occasions and went "across a red light by 1.5 seconds" on another.

He said he was "profoundly sorry for being disqualified and realised that as a judge he should have been more careful," the JCIO said.

The JCIO said the warning was issued by the Lady Chief Justice, with the Lord Chancellor's agreement.

Bowers, whose college profile notes he has been referred to as "an employment law rock star" and was said by a client to have "a brain the size of a planet", has led it since 2015. He will stand down in October.

He is set to be replaced as principal by Alyson King, the British ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo.