Mark Bogle (25) of Killycappy Road, Croneen, Lack, had initially pleaded guilty to the charges on the basis he hadn’t been driving on a public road, however changed his plea to guilty at Enniskillen Magistrates Court last Wednesday. 

Bogle had been stopped by police while driving a black Volkswagen Passat on the Mountain Road near Lack at approximately 9pm on Sunday, September 18. There was no front number plate on the car and when they spoke to Bogle they discovered he had no licence or insurance. 

In his notebook interview with the officer, Bogle made full admissions to not having insurance or a licence, having had it revoked for health reasons earlier last year. 

The police seized the car, which Bogle agreed to have destroyed. 

Defence barrister Ciaran Roddy explained Bogle had initially pleaded not guilty to the charges as he did not believed he’d been driving on a public road at the time he was stopped. 

He said the land on which Bogle was driving belonged to his uncle, and the defendant was driving the car around as it had a flat battery and he was trying to jump start it. 

Mr Roddy said Bogle, who had one prior conviction for careless driving, had not intended driving the car on a public road, and the road way where police stopped him on was an extension of his uncle’s driveway. 

However, having examined maps of the land and speaking with an engineer from the Department of Infrastructure, it transpired there had been an arrangement made with land owners previously that, while they retained ownership of the land, the road constructed on it belonged to Transport NI and was thus classed as a public road.

District Judge Nigel Broderick fined Bogle a total of £275 and disqualified him from driving for three months.