A 31-year-old woman has been ordered to complete 50 hours of community service for getting behind the wheel of her car one week after she had been banned from driving.
Shauna Simpson, of Raceview Court, Enniskillen, was charged with driving while disqualified and without insurance at Factory Road in Enniskillen on October 24th this year.
Simpson entered a guilty plea when she appeared before Enniskillen Magistrates Court for sentencing on Monday.
The court heard that police were on patrol on the date in question when they observed a black Volkswagen Golf with incorrect number plates being driven by Simpson. When they stopped the car to speak to the driver, they asked her to produce her driving documents and it was discovered that she had been banned from driving for four months one week previously on October 17th. She was later interviewed in relation to this and made full admissions to police.
District Judge Nigel Broderick was told by defence barrister Kieran Roddy that Simpson had taken “an utterly foolish course of action” on the day in question. The defendant had gone to collect her eight-year-old son from school a short distance away from her home because no-on else was available. The judge questioned how far a distance this was and was told that it was a ten minute walk. He asked: “Could she not have walked?” and Mr Roddy replied: “It begs the question why she didn’t walk, particularly given the short distance. It was a flagrant breach of a previous court order but no-one came to any harm during the short period that she was on the road.”
Referring to a probation report which had been prepared in the case, Mr Roddy said his client, a mother-of-three, had since sold the car and was suitable candidate for community service.
The judge told Simpson: “This was a big mistake and a very foolish thing to do in making the decision to pick up your child which has now landed you in more bother. I trust that it won’t happen again.”
Simpson was sentenced to 50 hours community service and disqualified from driving for four months.
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