Sentenced to five months in Carlow District Court for driving to the garda station while disqualified
Carlow Courthouse
A 34-YEAR-old man has been sentenced to five months in prison after he was caught driving while serving a disqualification, despite claiming he had only got behind the wheel in order to sign on at a garda station as a condition of his bail.
Costel Mihalcea, with an address of Graney West, Castledermot, Co Kildare, appeared before a sitting of Carlow District Court charged with two offences contrary to the .
The court heard that on 13 October 2025 at approximately 9am, Garda Butler was on patrol on Montgomery Street, Carlow town, when he observed Mr Mihalcea, whom he knew to be disqualified from driving, in the driver’s seat of a BMW 3 Series.
Garda Butler then saw Mr Mihalcea executing a u-turn on Athy Road before driving away. Mr Mihalcea was subsequently arrested two days later on 15 October.
The court heard that Mr Mihalcea has 21 previous convictions, the most recent of which was at Trim District Court in March 2025, where he was convicted for driving without a licence while disqualified and received a further 12-month disqualification and was fined €150.
Defence solicitor Chris Hogan said the reason his client was driving while he was disqualified was due to his being on bail at the time for theft offences, with one of the bail conditions requiring him to sign on at Carlow Garda Station.
“He is so fearful of going back to prison that he took the risk to get in the car and drive to Carlow Garda Station,” Mr Hogan said.
The court heard that the defendant, who is a Romanian national, has been living in Ireland for the past 15 years and is married with two children. He is currently seeking employment, having previously worked as a warehouse operative.
Mr Hogan said that his client had previously engaged with the probation services and added that he would be prepared to work in the community. He asked the judge to consider imposing community service rather than a custodial sentence, urging the court not to go for the “nuclear option” of a prison sentence.
However, Judge Geraldine Carthy noted that the defendant had failed to appear in court on his first scheduled date and he did not appear a week later, resulting in a bench warrant being issued for his arrest.
Mr Hogan said that his client had got his court dates confused and had been in France visiting family at the time, adding that he had liaised with gardaí upon his return to the country.
Having reflected on the matter during the lunch recess, Judge Carthy convicted Mr Mihalcea under section 38 of the and sentenced him to five months in prison and disqualified him from driving for six years, with the section 56 offence taken into consideration.
Mr Mihalcea was also ordered to enter into a bond of €500 with a cash lodgement of €200 and was prohibited from driving any mechanically-propelled vehicle.
