Banned driver caught seven times

Scott Simon Clements jailed for eight months

A P.E.I. man who already had six convictions for driving while disqualified was sentenced recently to eight months in jail for doing it a seventh time.

Scott Simon Clements, 26, appeared before Justice Terri MacPherson in P.E.I. Supreme Court for sentencing after previously pleading guilty to driving while disqualified. In Clements’s latest court appearance, Crown attorney Jeff MacDonald told the court Charlottetown police arrested Clements on Aug. 27 after checking the licence plate on his truck and seeing it belonged to a different vehicle.

At the time, Clements was prohibited from driving until January 2019. MacDonald said the truck Clements was driving had no registration, no insurance and wasn’t inspected. Clements had a prior record that included failing the breathalyzer, breaching his probation and six counts of driving while disqualified. He also had more than $12,000 in outstanding fines. Defence lawyer Yolande Murphy told the court a lot of Clements’s motivation to breach the driving prohibition orders was to get to work. Murphy said Clements was the primary income earner in his family and she asked for house arrest so he could continue working.

Clements lives close to where he works and can get a drive from coworkers, Murphy said. MacPherson said the court didn’t have an option in what it must do, and the sentence had to be higher than for his previous matters.

Along with the jail time, Clements will be banned from driving for three years after his release.

He must also pay a $200 victim surcharge.