Judge imposes three-month driving ban on woman for 'selfish, rude' parking in disabled space

By Gordon Deegan

A district court judge today continued his hard line against motorists parking in disabled parking spaces when he banned a mother of five from driving for three months.

At Ennis District Court, Judge Patrick Durcan described the actions of Ann-Marie Mongans of College Grove, Ennis, by parking her car in a disabled parking space near Cabey’s Lane in Ennis on April 26, 2018, as “totally unacceptable, selfish and rude”.

Judge Durcan’s driving ban on Ms Mongans follows him imposing a six-month ban on Ennis man, Andrew Ryan of Bridge Court, Tulla Rd, Ennis for the same disabled parking offence last month.

Judge Durcan's stance has won praise from disability rights campaigners.

Solicitor for Ms Mongans, Tara Godfrey today pleaded with Judge Durcan not to disqualify her client from driving.

Ms Godfrey said that Ms Mongans is a mother of five with her youngest being 10 months and eldest child being 12 years.

She said that Ms Mongans apologises for her actions and pleads guilty to the offence.

She said: “It is not an excuse, but she was under significant pressure that day.

“Ms Mongans’s driver’s licence is essential to her. She is very much at pains to say to the court that it is her children who will suffer if she is disqualified and she knows that she will be the cause of that - not you judge.”

However, imposing a fine of €400 and the three-month driving ban Judge Durcan said: “Ms Mongan’s behaviour was totally unacceptable on the day.

"She may have five children, but there are many disabled people who are so dependent on disabled parking spaces and your client’s behaviour was selfish, rude and she totally disregarded the difficulties experienced by disabled people.”

The prosecution against Ms Mongans was made by a Garda as opposed to a local authority prosecution.

Figures recently provided by the Minister for Justice, Charlie Flanagan, show huge variances in the number of fixed penalty charges issued by Gardaí against people illegally parking in disabled space.

Concerning 2017, the highest numbers of fixed charged penalties were issued in Cork city, 291, with 284 fines issued in Dublin’s south inner city along with 277 penalties issued in Galway.

The number of fines issued has halved in west Dublin and Co. Westmeath and more than halved in Co. Clare.

Over the same period, the number has doubled in Co. Wexford, Co. Galway and Co. Donegal.