Dundalk court: Uninsured driver given community service

A 23 year old man who had four previous convictions for driving without insurance - on both sides of the border, was sentenced at Dundalk District Court to 220 hours community service instead of a four month sentence.

James Hamilton with an address at Cloghan, Ardcath, Garristown was summoned for two further offences of driving uninsured at Cooksgrove, Duleek on April 20th 2019 and four and a half months later on the Castletown Road in Dundalk.

In March, Court presenter Sgt. Jimmy McGovern outlined how the defendant had 21 previous convictions including three for driving without insurance, and a further such offence which was recorded at Banbridge Magistrates Court, where he was banned from driving for two years.

The court heard Dundalk Circuit Court imposed a six month suspended sentence and a four year disqualification for dangerous driving in September 2018.

Judge Eirinn McKiernan said the 23 year old had “absolutely no regard for road traffic law at all”.

However the Defence solicitor stressed that all of the offending occurred over a period of a year in 2018 and 2019, when his client "had ceased living with his mother" and started to live with a group of young men and "went off the rails".

The solicitor added that the defendant doesn't appear to have come to garda attention in the last three and a half years.

He said the initial three months jail term for dangerous driving which his client had appealed, had "scared the life out of him" and he was before the court accompanied by his parents and with an offer of a job.

Judge McKiernan said the best she could do was to consider him for community service and put back both cases so his suitability could be assessed.

Last Wednesday, in addition to making an order that Mr. Hamilton complete 220 hours community service in lieu of a four-month sentence, Judge McKiernan disqualified him from driving for six years.