'Halo was tarnished' of Longford man who drove without insurance

A judge said a solicitor's attempts to portray his client as a “saint” after he had been caught without insurance had been damaged by an almost identical offence over a decade earlier.

Tom McLoughlin, Shanmullagh, Ballinamuck, Co Longford pleaded guilty at last week's sitting of Longford District Court to having no insurance on January 12 this year.

Garda Aiden Lenehan gave evidence of having stopped the accused driving a white Nissan shortly before 8:30am at Clonbalt, Longford.

When the court was told Mr McLoughlin had one previous conviction for no insurance, dating back to 2012, Frank Gearty, defending, said his client had told him to refrain from talking up his otherwise unblemished record.

“It (offence) was over seven years ago,” he said.

“I was going to portray him as a saint and he gave me strict instructions not to depict him as a saint,” he said.

In response and upon learning of that previous indiscretion, Judge Owens said: “The halo was tarnished.”

Mr Gearty replied by insisting there was no concerted attempt by Mr McLoughlin to avoid paying insurance, saying that while there were a total of three insurance policies in existence none of those covered his client when stopped.

“He (Mr McLoughlin) took over the driving of his son's vehicle from the day before and his son's vehicle was registered in the name of his son's wife and he was not a named driver,” said Mr Gearty.

“There was never an intention of avoiding insurance.”

Mr Gearty added his client was a married father of six, who farmed a small amount of land and who was “very embarrassed” to be before the court.

In passing judgement, Judge Owens said she was satisfied Mr McLoughlin believed he was insured and would be exercising her discretion in only imposing a monetary fine of €250, giving him four months to pay.