Judge fines man after Granard incident
A Mullingar man accused of being at the wheel of a car whilst being banned from driving has been remanded on bail to appear back in court next week.
Wilson Mwenya, 7 The Harbour, Market Point, Mullingar was in attendance at last week’s sitting of Longford District Court after being stopped by gardaí on the Athlone Road, Kinnegad, Westmeath the previous day. It was alleged the 44-year-old was pulled in at approximately 7:45pm and brought to Mullingar Garda Station for processing.
An application to remand Mr Mwenya back to Mullingar District Court was submitted and there was no objection to bail from the State. A hotel worker in receipt of around €400 a week, a similar application for legal aid was also made on behalf of Mr Mwenya.
The reason for the application, Judge Gibbons was told, was due to the fact Mr Mwenya was a father of five children.
However, Judge Gibbons expressed reservations over sanctioning the application.
“My initial reaction is it (legal aid) is not for people who work.”
It was also at that juncture that when the case would ultimately be heard, an allegation would be made that Mr Mwenya was driving while disqualified.
“It’s (legal aid) a question of income, he is in gainful employment,” said Judge Gibbons.
“My initial reaction is to say no.”
However, after there were no objections from the prosecution, Judge Gibbons approved the application and remanded Mr Mwenya back to a sitting of Mullingar District Court next Thursday (March 14).