Defendant has disqualification reduced by a year after second conviction for driving with no insurance
Judge Pauline Codd said Lorna Reid's defence was "rather bizzare".
A woman has had her driving ban reduced by a year following an appeal.
Lorna Reid (43), with an address at Weaver’s Wood, Clonsilla, Dublin 15, had a driving disqualification reduced to three years at the Dungarvan District Court of Appeals.
It was Reid’s second conviction for driving with no insurance. She had originally been handed a four-year disqualification.
Acting for the appellant, Sarah-Jane Comerford BL, argued the sentence was excessive, given there was a four-year gap between her first and second offence for driving with no insurance.
Ms Comerford asked for the sentence to be reduced.
Judge Pauline Codd said there were exasperating factors in the case that she could not ignore, particularly relating to Reid’s previous conviction and how she conducted herself with Gardaí.
Reid had been stopped by Garda Margaret Clifford on the N25 outside of Dungarvan on September 21, 2025.
The Garda asked Reid for her insurance, which she failed to produce. Garda Clifford said: “The conversation got quite heated.”
Reid told the Garda: “I’m going to put you all over social media.”
Reid told the court that she was under the belief that her car was insured. In a previous relationship, Reid’s former partner had covered her insurance and was listed as the named driver on a previous vehicle with an ’08 registration plate.
When she was pulled over by Garda Clifford, Reid was driving a different vehicle with a ’12 registration plate.
The court heard that while Reid’s relationship with her former partner had ended abruptly, she was under the impression that the insurance of her old car had transferred to her new vehicle.
Judge Codd questioned whether Reid’s defence was a believable one.
“It appears rather bizarre… how could an insurance company change something at the behest of a third party,” Judge Codd said.
Reid apologised to Garda Clifford in the court and said her emotions were heightened as she was driving home following a family bereavement retreat in Ardmore.
The court heard that Reid works 36 hours a week as a social carer in Dublin and wished for her disqualification to be postponed by six months so she could continue with a career that requires her to drive.
In her sentencing, Judge Codd accepted mitigating factors concerning personal hardships in Reid’s life, but said her previous conviction for no insurance should have sparked a change in her behaviour.
“You have to own that behaviour yourself… it's not one rule for one person,” Judge Codd said.
“Everyday people scrimp and scrape to get the money to pay for their insurance.”
Judge Codd said driving with insurance was part of the social contract.
