Fined for allowing child to be unrestrained in car
Portlaoise Courthouse
A MAN pleaded guilty to having a child unrestrained in his car, as well as to driving without tax, when gardaí stopped him in Abbeyleix. Garda O’Hanlon said that while on mobile patrol on 4 January on Ballinakill Road at Rathmoyle, Abbeyleix, he observed a car pass with a child unrestrained in the front seat.
The defendant, Babaseyi Ilori Olaitan (57), Block A, The Mill, Mill Street, Baltinglass, Co Wicklow, pleaded guilty to both offences when he was summoned before last week’s sitting of Portlaoise District Court.
Garda O’Hanlon said that Mr Olaitan was issued with fixed-charged penalty notices for the offences, which went unpaid.
The defendant told Judge Andrew Cody that the 18-month-old child had been in his mother’s arms at the time he was stopped. He said the child had been angry at the time, had climbed out of the back seat of the car and into his mother’s arms.
He said it was his wife’s car that he had been driving at the time, and it had since been sold.
For allowing a child to be unrestrained in a car, Judge Andrew Cody convicted Mr Olaitan and fined him €200. He was also fined €400 for having no tax on the car at the time.
