Woman banned from driving for test driving a car
A woman in Cork has been banned from driving for two years after she was stopped by Gardaí while she was test driving a car without having insurance.
The woman from Bantry, County Cork said to the court that she had only been in the car a few minutes when she was stopped by the Guards.
The woman said in court that she assumed that she was covered to drive the car through the dealership’s insurance but this was not the case.
The court obviously didn’t accept this excuse and add to this, the woman also had a previous conviction from last year for driving without insurance.
When she was stopped by the guards she did not have car insurance. The woman later produced evidence of new insurance at Bantry Garda Station but it did not cover her for the day she was stopped.
The car she was test driving had an insurance certificate in the name of a car dealer but this insurance requires the insurance holder to accompany a driver. Regarding whether she was insured or not, the 49-year-old woman, told the court: “I did not even think about it.” She had presumed she was covered by the dealer which wasn’t the case.
The woman related in court that she was nervous when stopped by the gardai, obviously because she had a previous conviction for not having insurance. She attempted to ring the car dealership at the time, but there was no signal. “I was literally in it for 15 minutes when I was stopped,” she told the judge.
The Judge said that she had “disregarded her civic obligations” and could also have also appraised herself of the situation regarding cover by the dealer by just asking.
She did produce a letter in court from the dealer stating that she had taken the car for a test drive on the day in question, but the date given in it was two weeks after the actual incident.
The woman who works as a carer said she needed her car to travel to work, but because it was her second conviction, the court had to hand down a mandatory two-year disqualification.
At the time of the woman's first conviction, the court heard that she was homeless and effectively living out of her car when she was first disqualified.
The judge said he was sympathetic and was glad the woman had come out from a really bad period in her life but his hands were tied as to the disqualification.
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