A Mullingar man has been given a 12 month suspended sentence after he pleaded guilty to two counts of driving without insurance.
Niall Casserly of 3 Springfield Haven, Delvin Road, Mullingar had been disqualified at the time of the offences, Mullingar District Court has heard.
He was disqualified from driving for 15 years by Judge Aeneas McCarthy who said that it was “only in extreme circumstances” that the court shouldn’t impose a custodial sentence on someone who drives while disqualified and is clearly in breach of a court order.
Casserly was first stopped at Dominik Street on June 4, 2008 and was stopped again at Farran on April 25 last year.
He’d been disqualified in February 2008, also for having no insurance and has a total of six previous convictions.
Ms Patricia Cronin said her client’s marriage had broken down and he had lost his home due to his difficulties with alcohol.
He now has no access to the vehicle and has moved away from Mullingar in an effort to stay away from people who effectively had a bad influence on him.
“He moved to avoid a prison sentence which he’s now looking at,” replied the judge.
However Ms Cronin insisted that her client knew his offence was serious and that he’d moved some distance away to stay away from company which got him in trouble.
She asked the court not to jail her client but to impose instead “a penalty that shows the seriousness” of the offence and which would have consequences if he is before the court again.
Judge McCarthy imposed a six month sentence for the first offence which he suspended for two years and disqualified Casserly for 10 years.
For the second offence, he imposed a further six month suspended sentence and a 15 year disqualification.
