A man who has been caught by Gardai driving without insurance on TWENTY previous occasions has been jailed for four months.
Michael Ward appeared before Letterkenny District Court in Co Donegal.
The court heard that the 33-year-old father-of-six had a total of 153 previous convictions.
Ward was stopped by Garda Sergeant Vincent Muldoon on March 26th, 2016 at Kilmacrennan and admitted he had no insurance.
The court heard that when caught, Ward was already serving a sixteen-year driving ban for not having insurance.
Solicitor Frank Dorrian said his client was in Co Donegal seeing a lady friend and was running an errand for her in the car.
He said his “remarkable catalogue” of previous convictions meant that he was now divorced and was a major issue in seeing his six children who were aged from 14 years down.
Mr Dorrian said that his client’s situation, like so many other serial offenders, had become so bad that he had “given up on himself.”
However, he was dealing with his addictions and was hoping to get back on track with his life.
“It is a difficult case and a bad record but he did his maximum best to cooperate with Gardai,” said Mr Dorrian.
Judge Alan Mitchell said the message had to go out that people who continually drive without insurance take a risk of going to prison.
“You’ve now hit 160 convictions and you may decide to stop,” added Judge Aylmer.
He sentenced Ward to four months in jail for driving without insurance and also disqualified from driving for six years.