A construction company was convicted and fined €2,000 at Ballina District Court on Tuesday after one of its vans was in use without tax or NCT — with the company already having 17 convictions of a similar nature.
Garda Martin McNicholas stopped the driver of a Ford transit van on November 17 2008 in Aaron Place, Ballina, where the garda noticed that the tax had expired in September 2006 and there was no certificate of roadworthiness. Garda McNicholas explained that the driver of the van was summonsed but had since left the jurisdiction, resulting in the owners of the van Liam Scott Construction Ltd, Doonalton, Dromore West, Sligo, being summonsed.
Director of the company Farnron Scott told the court that he did not know that the goods vehicle was being used as it should have been in the quarry and said that all of their vans were insured. Scott said that this van was now scrapped.
Judge Mary Devins asked Scott: “Why you think you are exempt from the rules of the road while the rest of us have to abide by them?” with many people having to save up to pay for their tax and NCT.
The judge said that the company showed an “interesting attitude to the law” with the 17 previous convictions of similar nature, before Judge Devins convicted and fined Liam Scott Construction Ltd €1,000 for not having tax and €1,000 for not having a cert of roadworthiness.
