A man charged with a number of driving offences will be taking lessons before he goes back on the road following a serious road accident.
Patrick Rhattigan of Rahanine, Rochfortbridge pleaded guilty at Mullingar District Court to driving with no tax on June 11 last year.
He was stopped on the Ashe Road with no seatbelt, and could bot explain to the court why he had no tax on the day.
Ms Patricia Cronin said her client was lucky to be here, and did have his seatbelt on when he was seriously injured in a later accident and spent four months in a wheelchair.
Judge David Anderson took the seatbelt charge into consideration but fined him €300 for having no tax.
When he was stopped later he was driving in another untaxed vehicle which Ms Cronin said he hadn’t intended to keep.
She said he sold his first car to buy the second and then sold that too. However he only had one car at a time, she said and normally kept his affairs in order.
In this case he hadn’t been able to tax the car because he had no NCT.
“All the more reason for not driving,” said the judge who was unimpressed that Rhattigan was an unaccompanied driver on a provisional licence.
He was fined a further €250 for having no tax.
Rhattigan was also convicted of threatening behaviour at Grange in Mullingar on May 10 two years ago as part of a large group of people involved in a dispute between feuding families.
Inspector Fergus Treanor said his client had been “very aggressive” with other individuals.
