Judge issues warning after Laois woman charged for having non- conforming number plates
Image for illustration purposes
AT Portlaoise District Court last week, Judge Andrew Cody issued a warning to motorists using illegal or non-conforming vehicle number plates.
He sent out the warning when a Mountmellick woman was summonsed before the court for affixing non-conforming registration plates to the front and to the rear of her car when stopped driving by gardaí on the Abbeyleix Road in Portlaoise on 27 October last year.
Shania McCormack (24), Oak Drive, Ballincollig, Mountmellick pleaded guilty to the offences.
Garda Hogan said following the traffic stop, he issued Ms McCormack with fixed charged penalty notices for the offences, which went unpaid.
Ms McCormack told Judge Cody: “I have recently changed the plates.” “When was this,” asked the Judge, to which Ms McCormack replied: “Back in March. I got fined in January.” Judge Cody was informed that the defendant has no previous convictions.
He asked garda Hogan why he had stopped Ms McCormack driving and what had alerted him to the non-conforming number plates?
Garda Hogan said that the Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) camera in the garda car, that instantly scans vehicle registration plates, did not detect any details from Ms McCormack’s plates.
Judge Cody asked Ms McCormack whether she wanted to obtain legal advice, informing her that it is illegal to have non-conforming number plates, which she still had attached to her car nearly six months after being stopped by garda Hogan.
Before adjourning the case for finalisation to the 2 July sitting of the court, Judge Cody warned: “Be in no doubt you are facing a disqualification. Anybody coming before this court for having illegal number plates, let them be in no doubt. They are facing disqualification.”
