Man caught driving from NCT centre without insurance

A man who took a chance driving to the NCT centre without insurance has narrowly escaped a conviction.

Stephen Bailey (43) of Dunmadden, Templeboy but originally from Canada, had just moved to Ireland from Japan and bought a car here.

His solicitor, Ms Laura Spellman, told Judge Kilrane her client ran into difficulties with insurance because the car had no NCT.

Yet he couldn’t get an NCT cert without driving the car to the NCT centre. She said Bailey rang several state agencies, including the Gardaí looking for advice as to what to do and the only thing that was suggested to him was to have the car towed to the NCT centre.

However the NCT staff advised Bailey they would never carry out an NCT on a vehicle that had been towed to the centre.

The court heard Bailey took the decision to drive his car to the NCT centre himself for his appointment on 15 th December 2017 but was stopped by Gardaí on his way back.

“Why did he not have a friend drive the car?” enquired Judge Kilrane.

“They knew no one. They only knew their landlord in Northern Ireland. He’s a student at the IT,” replied Ms Spellman.

“There was a very simple solution to this - get someone with insurance to drive his car to the NCT centre,” said the judge.

“From August to December he didn’t know anyone who could drive him?” he asked again. “I must convict,” he said.

Ms Spellman said having five penalty ponits would cause Bailey “huge financial difficulties getting insurance.”

“And might affect the validity of his present insurance,” added the Judge. “I find it at the extreme of credibility but I’ ll strike out,” he said finally, dismissing the charge against Bailey.