Motorist caught 33 times without insurance appeals sentence after committing same offence
The judge had banned the accused from driving for eight years.
A motorist who was caught driving without insurance 33 times appealed his sentence of five months for committing the same offence.
Alan Duggan, of Ballinderry Park, Mayfield, Cork, pleaded guilty to the latest offence of uninsured driving and appealed the sentence to Cork Circuit Appeals Court.
Judge Helen Boyle said there had to be a custodial sentence where he continued to drive at a time when he was disqualified.
However, Judge Boyle said she would suspend the last two months of the five-month sentence and added: “That is the best I can do for you.”
When the matter first came before Cork District Court, Judge Marian O’Leary banned him from driving for eight years, as well as jailing him for five months.
Defence barrister, Elaine Audley, said Duggan, 37, had planned to do up a car and sell it and that he and another man were involved in this kind of work together.
Ms Audley said that the other man was unable to work that day and Duggan took a chance and drove the car back from Buttevant to Cork but was stopped by gardaí on the way.
When he spotted the Garda checkpoint he turned off the road, fled on foot, and initially denied that he had been driving it at all.
He has 149 previous convictions.
Ms Audley BL said of Duggan: “He spent a lot of his life behind bars and wants to get on with his life now. He has not had a conviction since 2018.
"He had a difficult start in life. He is supportive in the care of his mother.”
