A HAULIER has been given a lengthy disqualification after a lorry with 47 defects was found to have been uninsured.
Edward Jason Sutherland Taylor was given bans totalling seven years.
Taylor (46) did not appear for at Letterkenny District Court, where Judge Alan Mitchell handed down the sentences.
On June 6, 2019, Gardai were carrying out a multi-agency checkpoint with the RSA, revenue and customs at Listillion, Letterenny.
A lorry belonging to Taylor was pulled in and a subsequent enforcement test found 47 defects, 25 of which were classified as ‘major’.
“The spring was the main concern,” Sergeant Muldoon explained.
“It keeps the unit in place and it was broken where it actually connects to the lorry. “In the report, it was written in red: ‘This vehicle cannot be driven’.”
A routine check told how the vehicle bore number plates registered to a BMW and not the Iveco rigid lorry, which was being driven by a Sean Gallagher from Sligo.
In a phone call, during which Taylor was put on loud spewker, he admitted that he was the owner of the vehicle, but could not explain the wrong registration. As it could not be established who had put on the plates, no charge was proffered.
Taylor, of Melvin Fields, Kinlough, Co Leitrim, accepted that there was no insurance on the vehicle.
Sgt Muldoon said that Taylor had six previous convictions for having no insurance and on April 15, 2021, he was disqualified for six years and issued with fines totalling €8,000.
“He’s not here, but he would want to be here,” Judge Alan Mitchell said.
Solicitor for Taylor, Mr Patsy Gallagher, said his client had suffered a stroke and had spent some time in rehabilitation at the Acquired Brain Injury unit.
For having no insurance on the vehicle, Taylor was disqualified for six years and fined €500. For having the dangerously defective vehicle, he was fined €100 and the mandatory one-year disqualification was imposed.