Enniskillen Court House, RMGFH04
AN ENNISKILLEN man who handed in a void licence to police, which meant he was also uninsured to drive, has been given a one month driving ban.
Kieran Corrigan (35) of Killyvilly pleaded guilty to two counts of driving without a licence, one count of having no insurance, and one count of using a document to deceive, namely a driving licence. The charges related to two incidents last year.
On Monday, July 25, 2016, at approximately 11.25pm, police operating a checkpoint on Queen Elizabeth Road in Enniskillen stopped a white Audi A4 being driven by Corrigan.
Corrigan produced his driving licence and insurance the next day. However, in September the police were contacted by the DVLA who said Corrigan had not applied for a replacement licence after previously being disqualified from driving.
The second incident was on September 13 last year. At approximately 10pm police saw Corrigan get out of the driver’s seat of a red Peugeot 306 at Curry’s car park in Enniskillen. He did not have a licence at the time.
Defence barrister Stefan Rafferty said Corrigan’s case was complicated, adding the defendant had difficulty remembering events from that period, as he’d been going though a difficult break-up at the time.
Mr Rafferty explained when Corrigan had previously been disqualified from driving, he wasn’t present for the hearing in court and hadn’t been legally represented. He said Corrigan hadn’t known he was supposed to hand in his licence to the court.
The barrister said Corrigan, who has six live penalty points on his licence, relied on his licence for both his work and family commitments, and asked District Judge Nigel Broderick to keep his driving ban to a minimum.
Judge Broderick said it was a complex situation was an example of the complications that can arise when someone doesn’t hand in their licence to the court. He said holding on to the old licence was a serious matter, pointing out Corrigan had used it to deceive police as “on the face of it” the licence was valid.
Stating he would “temper” Corrigan’s driving ban due to his childcare commitments, Judge Broderick warned the defendant he would remember the facts of this case and if he broke traffic laws again in future his children would not be taken as mitigation by the court.
Judge Broderick disqualified Corrigan from driving for one month and fined him a total of £450.