Had 116 previous convictions
WITH what his solicitor called a “cavalier attitude to driving”, a former state prosecution witness has appeared before Limerick District Court charged with road traffic offences just three weeks after being sentenced on similar charges.
Twenty-one-year-old Erol Ibrahim, of Delmege Park, Moyross, was before Judge Tom O’Donnell after Garda Keith King stopped the accused while driving an uninsured car in Limerick last year.
Evidence was heard in the court a day earlier involving Ibrahim and similar road traffic incidents. It also heard that he had some 116 previous convictions for “numerous road traffic convictions”.
John Devane, solicitor, told the court that his client received sentences three weeks ago for dangerous driving and driving without insurance.
He also added that the 21-year-old father of one had a “cavalier attitude to driving”.
Adding that Ibrahim was in poor circumstances, Mr Devane said that his future looked bleak.
He also noted that Judge O’Donnell had earlier considered a lengthy suspended sentence, and thus, Ibrahim would “sign his own warrant” if found in breach of road traffic legislation again.
Judge O’Donnell said that the accused had an appalling record and still had a bulk of road traffic convictions, no matter what the disqualification was handed down by the courts.
For Garda Keith King’s matter of driving without insurance, he sentenced Ibrahim to six months in prison and suspended it pending he be on good behaviour for a period of two years.
He also handed down a second consecutive six month prison suspended sentence for other road traffic matters heard earlier in court.
Ibrahim was placed on his own bond of €100 and disqualified from driving for six years, before Judge O’Donnell said: “To put it in simple terms, if you are caught driving in the next two years, you will be going to prison for 12 months to start with”.
