Banned driver was driving to Covid test

A 29-YEAR-OLD man caught driving while disqualified told police he had been driving his ill wife for a Covid-19 test, a court heard.

Police on patrol had pulled over a blue Mazda driven by Dillon Peter Hohn on Anzac Ave, Harristown, about 11am on March 30.

Checks of his driver’s licence found Hohn had been disqualified from driving by the Toowoomba Magistrates Court on November 4, last year, the same court heard on Wednesday.

The car he was driving was also found to be unregistered and uninsured, police prosecutor Rohan Brewster-Webb told the Toowoomba Magistrate’s Court.

Hohn told police he was driving a “spare car” and had been travelling from Cambooya to a Westbrook medical centre, and that they had noone else available to drive.

Hohn pleaded guilty to driving while disqualified by court order and to driving an unregistered and uninsured vehicle.

His solicitor Mandy Reid, of Athena Law, told the court her client’s partner had been ill that day and they had been advised to go for a Covid test.

He knew he shouldn’t have been driving, but he considered the Covid test important, she said.

It was Hohn’s intention to drive straight to the medical centre and back, but he felt the necessity to drive, Ms Reid said.

The 29-year-old was a fly-in fly-out worker and could pay fines, she submitted.

Ms Reid said the Covid tests had proved negative.

Acting Magistrate Roger Stark warned Hohn that people did go to jail for offences such as driving while disqualified.

He fined Hohn $1533 and disqualified him from holding or obtaining a driver’s licence for the mandatory two years.