Judge Mary Fahy asked how a man with no insurance was able to crash his car last November, when the Gardaí had seized it the year before.
Fabricio Castro (33), who resides at Carraig Mór in Loughrea appeared before the district court for two charges of driving without insurance in the same car more than a year apart.
Last November 14 Castro was involved in a two car collision in his green Volkswagon Golf on the Wellpark road and couldn’t show provide insurance when asked by gardaí at the scene.
He was given ten days to show proof of insurance at Loughrea garda station, and failed to do so.
This caused some confusion for the court since that same car had been seized by gardaí in September 2016 when Castro was pulled over by Garda Shane Lambe.
The court heard that insurance and tax details that Castro gave to Garda Lambe referred to another car altogether, and at no point between the two incidents did Castro have insurance for the green Golf.
“So all the rest of us will be paying for it through the Motor Insurance Bureau I take it?” said Judge Fahy of the damage caused by the accident. She asked how Castro was able to get his car out of lockup when he still didn’t have any insurance.
Solicitor for the defence John Martin said that he was instructed that Castro called a tow truck to take the car out and wasn’t asked for insurance.
“Talk about an Irish solution.” said Judge Fahy. However, gardaí couldn’t confirm that Castro had it towed, and believed that he would still be required to show proof of insurance before it was released.
For the collision last November Judge Fahy ordered Castro to pay €1,200 in compensation to the other driver, who will no doubt see their insurance go up because of this, and adjourned the case to October 17 for sentencing.
For driving without insurance on September 26 2016, Castro was given a two year disqualification.
