Cookstown man found driving without insurance for third time in three years

The sitting of East Tyrone Magistrates at Dungannon Courthouse, heard that Mark Reeves, 56, of Killymoon Street, Cookstown had been detected by police on patrol in the Orritor Road area of the town without a policy of insurance covering his vehicle.

The court was told that police stopped Mr Reeves at Orritor Crescent, Cookstown having first come to their attention on the Orritor Road driving a Ford Escort car.

Police then conducted a notebook interview at the scene during which the defendant admitted that he was driving while disqualified from holding a driving licence and using a motor vehicle in a public place without a valid policy of insurance.

A defence solicitor told the court that his client had been taking the vehicle which he had sold the short distance to a new owner.

District Judge John Meehan questioned why this excuse hadn’t been offered to the police officers at the scene when they were interviewing Mr Reeves.

Judge Meehan made reference to the defendant’s record of no insurances over recent years and stated that this had arisen from a sense of entitlement. Such entitlement Judge Meehan noted “must be met with coercion.”

Judge Meehan sentenced Reeves to three months imprisonment suspended for two years and forfeiture of the Ford Escort car which Reeves had been driving,

Meehan was further disqualified from driving for a further two years and fined £250. He was also fined £15 for the offenders levy.

Reeves was given eight weeks to pay the fine.