FOR hundreds of years it has been educating the country’s elite – and now it has taught a Hampshire business a lesson.

The University of Oxford has triumphed over Eastleigh company Oxford Law School in a High Court case after complaining the latter was breaching copyright.

A High Court judge ordered the school to change its name and hand over its website to its 800-year-old university namesake.

The school’s boss, Mohammed Riaz, told the court he had no intention of riding on the university’s coat tails and that only “morons in a hurry” would mistake his business for the centuries old alma mater to 26 prime ministers.

It’s understood Mr Riaz ran the business, which specialised in basic law courses, from his home in Colvin Gardens, Eastleigh, and that it stopped trading in February 2013.

The university reported only a handful of students had phoned its law department mistakenly.

But Judge Janet Lambert said there was a real risk of damage to the university’s reputation and found the school had breached the university’s trademarks.

She said its website had “sought to recreate a look and get-up” of Oxford and was “likely to deceive potential law students”.