A Lithuanian national whose driving licence was deemed a counterfeit by a detective garda from Garda Headquarters — who specialises in handwriting and documents — furnished more documentation at Claremorris District Court this week for further investigation.
On December 15 2008 at 12.30am Evija Anderson, Brender House, Mount Street, Claremorris was stopped driving by Garda Ann Hoban who demanded the production of her driving licence. A Latvian driving licence was produced which Garda Hoban believed was a fake and sent it for analysis to Dublin. In April 2009 results were obtained to say that the licence was a counterfeit.
Detective Garda John Leonard, from the documentation section of Garda HQ, told the court on Tuesday that there are a number of discrepancies on the licence, in that certain security features, such as a microprint and optical variable ink, were not present. Det Garda Leonard said that this was not the first time that he had come across counterfeit Latvian licences.
Anderson (25 ), who has been living in Ireland for five years, told the court that she passed her driving tests (written and practical ) in Latvia and that she received her licence from a local authority after passing her test.
The defendant furnished documentation used to obtain the driving licence to Det Garda Leonard which will now undergo further investigation. Judge Mary Devins adjourned the matter to March 16.
