Jail for driver who ignored diving ban in Midlands

A MAN was jailed for five months after a court heard he was caught driving just three months after being hit with a 15-year ban.

Tullamore Circuit Court was told that Simonas Medeika, aged 42, was found to have no insurance when he was stopped at Dublin Road, Edenderry at 12.15pm on June 22, 2020.

Sandra Mahon, Offaly state solicitor, told Judge Keenan Johnson that the tax on Mr Medeika's vehicle was out of date and he did not pay a fixed charge penalty notice.

Gardai subsequently found that he was disqualified at the time having been banned for 15 years at Tullamore Circuit Court on March 6, 2020.

He had also been convicted of having no insurance and drink-driving at Mullingar Circuit Court in May 2019 and more recently, in December 2021 at Naas Circuit Court, he received another 15-year disqualification.

In all, he had up to eight convictions for driving without insurance. “One of the worst records I've seen,” commented Judge Johnson.

Mr Medeika was back before the judge to appeal against the severity of a sentence imposed on him at Tullamore District Court.

Defence counsel Suzanne Dooner said she was aware of the risks run by taking the appeal but added that the man had a very good work history since coming to Ireland in 2004.

A father of one, he worked as a mechanic and the offence before the court was committed when he was carrying out a pre-NCT test on a car and and naively he had driven it outside the premises.

Judge Johnson asked: “How could it be naively with a record like that?”

Ms Dooner said the appellant was just outside the perimeter of the garage and she had explained to him that it was public property so he had no right to be there.

Because of the very good working relationship he had with his employer they cleared some of the site so he can do the testing within the grounds.

Letters of support were handed in to the court, including one from his wife.

Ms Dooner said the man had spent a period in custody for road traffic matters and that meant he was away from his family.

He had served one-and-a-half months and was on temporary release and he signed on at a garda station and at the prison.

Ms Dooner added that he had pleaded guilty at an early stage in the District Court and he had saved €1,000.

Judge Johnson said Mr Sedeikas had driven while disqualified, had at least eight previous convictions and had been the subject of a 15-year ban.

“I don't know what it takes to get the message through what it means to be disqualified,” he said.

When Mr Medeika, with an address at Tanara, Broadford, Co Kildare, was before Tullamore Circuit Court in March 2020, Judge Johnson was told he had served just four days of a two-month sentence which was previously imposed on him for drink-driving.

“You wonder what we're doing up here, really,” remarked the judge. Judge Johnson learned about the short time served in prison when Mr Medeika, a native of Lithuania, was appealing against a six-month prison sentence which had been imposed for a drink-driving offence. The court was told then that the man had three convictions for drink-driving since 2017 and a 10-year ban had been imposed on him for the last one in October 2019. A nine-month suspended sentence was imposed.