Wolverhampton South West Labour MP Rob Marris has accepted a conditional caution for criminal damage after clambering over the bonnet of a parked van to board a bus, the Express & Star can reveal.

The 53-year-old former bus driver has also agreed to pay for the near £350 damage caused to the vehicle and write a letter of apology to its owner. The move is an admission of guilt but does not count as a criminal conviction.

Mr Marris had previously denied the offence and was due to stand trial at Coventry Magistrates Court today but accepted the caution after visiting Bilston Street Police station late yesterday afternoon.

He had been invited to go there after his lawyers contacted the Crown Prosecution Service to indicate that he would be prepared to accept a conditional caution which is a recently introduced legal tool aimed at stopping courts getting clogged up with minor cases.

Talks took place last week and the appointment was made for him to go to the police station to discuss the incident in March at a bus stop in Jeffcock Road near his home in Penn Fields.

Mr Marris, a trained solicitor and son of a magistrate, said today: “I am pleased the police have decided not to pursue this minor matter any further. I accept that what I did was rather unconventional, but the small van was parked illegally, and was needlessly preventing safe access for boarding the bus. I am sorry that, when walking across the bonnet of that van, to get on the bus, I damaged the van. That was never my intention. Many people have asked me if the van driver was also charged, for parking in a marked bus stop. I do not know.”

Colin Molloy Black Country District CPS Prosecutor said: “I endorsed the papers some time ago that a conditional caution was appropriate in the case but initially the defendant was not prepare to make a sufficiently unequivocal admission.”