Provisional licence holder drove through a red light

Richard Joseph Hoy, Joseph Street, Portadown, was fined £50 last Wednesday at Craigavon Magistrates Court for driving unaccompanied on June 17 this year. He was also given four penalty points.

Fines of £50 were imposed for not displaying ‘L’ plates and breach of a traffic sign.

The court heard that the attention of the police was drawn to a vehicle which went through a red light and they stopped it on the Armagh Road, Portadown.

A fixed penalty notice was issued but it could not be processed because Hoy was a provisional licence holder. This led to the other offences.

When spoken to by police he said that it was his son’s mobility car he had been driving and he knew it was wrong to drive on his own as a provisional licence holder.

Mr Hugo Marley, representing the defendant, said his client took the car because his wife was away.

He explained that Hoy’s son who has Spina Bifida asked him to get him something and that was why he went to the supermarket. He had tried to drive quickly through the lights.

District Judge, Mr Peter King, said the defendant had an ‘appalling driving record’ and was someone who had been through the courts on a number of occasions for driving matters.

Mr Marley said it was an emergency and exceptional circumstances occasioned the defendant to leave the house.