A 44-YEAR-OLD woman who was twice caught driving while disqualified – and was found carrying drugs the second time she was arrested – has been sentenced to 150 hours of community service.
Geraldine Rosario was also given a year’s driving ban and a six-month probation order.
Assistant Magistrate Adam Clarke told her: “There is no doubt that this crossed the custodial threshold. You have come close to potential custody.”
The Magistrate’s Court heard that Rosario admitted driving an uninsured car on Boxing Day last year while she was banned from driving.
She committed the same offences again on 18 January. Legal adviser Francis Burak, prosecuting, said that on that occasion she was also found to be in possession of two class C drugs, diazepam and clonazepam.
Rosario admitted the offences of driving while disqualified and uninsured and possessing drugs. She also admitted failing to notify licensing authorities of a change in her address.
Advocate Nicholas Mière, defending, said Rosario accepted the risk she had been taking and expressed her “regret and remorse”.
But he added: “Miss Rosario is more of a risk of harm to herself than she is to others.”
The Assistant Magistrate said committing the same crimes twice within one month was “a highly aggravating factor”, but that he would not opt for a jail sentence after a pre-sentence report stated that she was working to improve her behaviour.
He told her: “It is down to you to prove that you are going to put things right.”
