Woman (45) tried to evade checkpoint
Carlow Court House. Photo: Michael O'Rourke
A TINRYLAND woman received a six-year driving disqualification and was fined €300 after she was found to have driven without a licence, having evaded a garda checkpoint.
Ann Marie Donoghue (45) of Dun Na Rí, Tinryland, Carlow pleaded guilty to two offences, contrary to section 56 (driving without a licence) and section 38 (driving without insurance) of the .
Insp Jones told the court that on 27 June at 9.40pm, gardaí were conducting a checkpoint on the N80 when they observed a vehicle stopping and turning around before driving away in the opposite direction. Gardaí subsequently pursued and stopped the vehicle before asking the driver to produce a driving licence. She refused to do so and was arrested and brought to Carlow Garda Station.
The court heard that Ms Donoghue has 19 previous convictions, the most recent of which was from December 2022 for a theft offence.
Two of her previous convictions were for driving without insurance and one was for driving without a licence. Her most recent conviction for not having car insurance was on 10 December 2009, when she received a fine of €250 but no disqualification.
Judge Geraldine Carthy queried how the defendant had two previous convictions for driving with no insurance but had yet to be disqualified, with Insp Jones outlining that Ms Donoghue’s first conviction for no insurance in January 2007 had resulted in a disqualification.
Defence solicitor Kellie Manning told the court that, on the day in question, the vehicle her client was driving had an insurance policy, was fully taxed and had a valid NCT certificate.
Ms Manning added that her client, who is currently studying for a degree, used to hold a UK driver’s licence, but it had since expired. She said Ms Donoghue’s son suffered from seizures and had been a regular patient at Temple Street Children’s Hospital in Dublin and that Ms Donoghue needed the vehicle to travel there. Medical proof of this was provided to the court.
“She is a stay-at-home mother and her most recent conviction for no insurance was from over 17 years ago,” Ms Manning told the court in mitigation.
Judge Carthy noted the guilty plea and the medical documents regarding the defendant’s child’s medical history as mitigation, but said that unfortunately her only task was to apply the law and that this was Ms Donoghue’s third offence for driving with no insurance.
She convicted and fined Ms Donoghue €300, to be paid within 90 days, and imposed a six-year driving disqualification for the section 58 offence of driving without a licence, taking the no insurance charge into consideration.
Ms Manning asked the court to fix recognisance in the event of an appeal, which Judge Carthy set at a €500 own bond.
