Jose Rui Perestrelo Nobrega (49), of Grande Route des Sablons, Grouville, was also banned from driving for 19 months by the Magistrate’s Court.
Centenier Peter Garrett said that Nobrega was stopped by the States police in Lewis Street at about 6.20 pm on 8 October while
driving his girlfriend’s VW Golf.
He said that officers suspected the defendant was the subject of a driving ban. The officers’ suspicions were confirmed shortly after they stopped the car. Nobrega was also unable to produce
a driving licence or insurance documents, the court heard.
In August, Nobrega was banned from driving for nine months and sentenced to 120 hours’ community service for twice driving while disqualified and without being insured. Those offences were committed in October 2017 and April this year. He was also fined
£450.
During sentencing at the most recent hearing, Assistant Magistrate Peter Harris said Nobrega had shown ‘a complete lack of respect’ for court orders and that by driving in St Helier at that time of the day he ‘had put the safety of the public at risk’.
The first offence of driving while disqualified and uninsured was committed in October last year in St Clement and he was also stopped in St Clement for the same offence in April this year.
Mr Harris said that the defendant had been banned from driving in 2010 and had never got back his full licence. In effect, the court heard, he had been disqualified for seven years before the 2017 offence.
‘The latest offending has taken place only two months after sentencing,’ Mr Harris said. These are serious offences that represent a
danger to the public and there is no option but to impose a custodial sentence today.’
Mr Harris said that 90 hours of community service was still outstanding and he imposed a 20-week jail term to replace the community service order. He also ordered Nobrega to serve a further 22 weeks in custody for the latest
offences.
Advocate Alison Brown, defending, said that Nobrega supported a son with cerebral palsy in England who lived with the defendant’s ex-wife.
‘If you send this man into custody there will be serious consequences for his disabled son and his [son’s] mother,’ she told the court.
