Jailed twice for driving while disqualified

In September, Shammi Motisingh was jailed for six months for driving after he was previously disqualified from doing so by a magistrate.

But when he was arrested for that offence, the 46-year-old father of a teenaged daughter from Quinam Road, Siparia, had been awaiting sentence for a similar offence he committed in August.

Yesterday, Motisingh was brought from the Maximum Security Prison to be sentenced for the August offence and a magistrate imposed a nine-year jail sentence on him in the San Fernando Magistrates’ Court.

He told Magistrate Natalie Diop, “Your Worship, inside jail is called lock-down; outside here is the free world.

In jail we learn how to overcome the bad habits of the free world.” Motisingh’s troubles began in March when he was arrested and charged for driving under the influence of alcohol. On March 22, he appeared in the Siparia Magistrates’ Court and was fined and disqualified from holding a driver’s permit for three years.

However, Police Constable Shiva Roopchand, in August, arrested Motisingh during a roadblock exercise in Debe and charged him for contraveing the order of the court.

On August 22, Motisingh appeared before Magistrate Taramatee Ramdass in the San Fernando Magistrates’ Court to answer to that charge and he also pleaded guilty. T he magistrate placed him on his own bond and postponed the matter to yesterday for facts and sentencing. However, in September, Police Constable Joel Paul stopped Motisingh in another roadblock along Wellington Road, Debe. He had no driver’s permit, and when taken before Ramdass in October, he pleaded guilty.

On September 30, he was sentenced to serve six months in jail for the offence.

Yesterday, Motisingh was taken to court from prison to answer the charge Roopchand laid against him in August.

Before Diop in the San Fernando Traffic Court, he pleaded guilty to two charges __ driving whilst being disqualified and driving without insurance. Police prosecutor Sgt Kasieram Luctchman read the facts.

He said that on August 19, Roopchand had stopped motor vehicle PCN 3477 and questioned Motisingh about his driving documents.

Motisingh replied, “Officer, ah don’t have one; my permit taken away by the court.” Kasieram told Diop that the policeman also observed that the insurance certificate Motisingh had presented to him, had expired.

Diop asked him why the court should not impose another jail term on him, he having committed the same offence twice.

Motisingh said that being in jail was of great help to him in ridding his dependency on alcohol.

He said, “This is like rehab. It really helping.”