“Normally people on their third conviction for no insurance go to jail,” Judge Tim Lucey warned an Athlone woman at Mullingar District Court last week.
However he disqualified Olivia O’Neill of 47 Battery Heights for six years and fined her €300, saying he thought she had gotten the message at last.
“It’s very important that people don’t drive around with no insurance. It’s lethal.”
Garda Dowd told the court how on March 3 2009 Ms O’Neill was stopped on the N6 at Tyrrellspass driving at 139km/h in a 100km/h zone. She failed to pay the on-the-spot fine and did not present her driving licence or insurance at Athlone Garda Station as agreed.
Ms Fiona Hunt said her client had been disqualified from driving at the time and had been going to Cloverhill prison to see her husband.
Since then there was no vehicle at the home of the mother of four.
Garda Dowd told the court she had “a lot of previous” and detailed two convictions for driving without insurance, a situation which the judge described as “very serious”.
