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Judge takes Armagh woman’s charity work into consideration when handing down sentence

An Armagh community worker has been fined after failing to renew her insurance and driving licence over the busy Christmas period.

The 39-year-old, of Woodford Green, pleaded guilty at Armagh Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday charged with driving without insurance or licence.

Court heard the defendant was stopped by police on January 18, at around 2.45pm on the Woodford Drive driving a silver Toyota.

Her car had been flagged during police checks as having no insurance.

When asked by police to show her licence the defendant stated she did not have it with her.

Police asked to bring her licence to a station within seven days.

The defendant did come to a police station on January 25, with an insurance policy which had a start date of the previous day.

Defence Counsel told the court the defendant did not have a valid licence at the time, however, she did now.

They explained that both had expired and she had forgotten to renew them over the “busy Christmas period”.

The defence added that the defendant had two young sons and that she was unemployed, but “engaged greatly in charitable work”.

The court also heard that the defendant did have a record, although not for offences similar to this, and no offending had occurred for some time.

District Judge Paul Copeland said he would take her “commendable work in the community into consideration”.

For the no insurance offence the defendant was ordered to pay a fine of £250 and given six penalty points and for no driving licence she was made to pay £50 and had three penalty points put on her licence.

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