Portlaoise Court: Man accepts voluntary deportation after case is heard
Portlaoise Courthouse
PORTLAOISE District Court was told that a man who came to Ireland in January on a holiday has accepted a voluntary deportation order and was due to leave the country two days after his court case.
When the defendant’s name was first called, the prosecuting garda in the case, Roy Cooper, told Judge Susan Fay that the defendant’s English was not very good and that a friend who was to have interpreted for him was not yet present in court.
Garda Cooper said immigration officials had informed him that the defendant, Renato De Sousa from Clonanny House, Portarlington was due to be voluntarily deported in two days (Saturday) following the court case.
The defendant had been charged with driving without insurance or a licence at Bracklone Street, Portarlington on 6 June last year.
Judge Fay said that the case could not proceed in the absence of an interpreter, that the defendant should have an opportunity to understand what was going on in his case.
Garda Cooper said that he could provide an interpreter to assist Mr De Sousa by phone if that proved useful?
Judge Fay put the case back for a second calling.
When it resumed, Garda Cooper said: “We’ve had a very unusual difficulty in the case. The man who initially stood up when the case was called was not Mr De Sousa. I rang his phone and his friend told me that the immigration officer told him that there was no need for him to attend court.” Judge Fay issued a bench warrant for his arrest and told Garda Cooper that if Mr De Sousa arrived in court that it would be cancelled.
A short time later, the 45-year-old defendant arrived in court and pleaded guilty to the two offences.
His solicitor Victoria Kingston said that her client was “going back to Brazil on Saturday.
She said that on the day of the incident, Mr De Sousa had been visiting a friend who asked him to drive a car that he was selling.
Ms Kingston said that the defendant: “Had come to Ireland in January on a holiday and has accepted to return voluntarily to Brazil, where he has a wife and four children.” Noting Mr De Sousa has no previous convictions, Judge Fay convicted him of driving without insurance and fined him €200, which he agreed to pay from the cash bail he had posted when initially arrested for the offence.
She took the other matter of driving without a licence into consideration and assigned free legal aid.
