A man caught driving without a licence three times in 10 months was warned by a magistrate he was lucky he was not facing prison.
Mario Carricato, 50, from Shepparton, pleaded guilty in Shepparton Magistrates’ Court to three counts of driving while disqualified and driving an unregistered vehicle.
Prosecutor Leading Senior Constable Fiona Kennedy told the court police caught Carricato driving while suspended on New Dookie Rd, Shepparton, on September 14, 2019.
The registration on the car he was driving — which belonged to someone else — had expired on August 26, 2019.
Carricato told police at the time he did not know the car was unregistered.
The court was told Carricato was again stopped by police while driving on a disqualified licence at Lemnos Recreation Reserve in Lemnos on March 29, 2020.
His vehicle was impounded that time.
Leading Sen Constable Kennedy said in a third incident, police caught Carricato driving on a suspended licence in Wilmot Rd, Shepparton, on July 21, 2020.
The court heard Carricato told police at the time he had been at work when his manager became sick and thought he was having a heart attack, so he was dropping his manager home.
Carricato’s solicitor Ian Michaelson told the court two of the incidents related to his client’s work at a transport company.
In one, he was taking home a colleague who had heart problems in the past and no-one else was there to drive him, while in another he was driving home a young truck-washer who did not have a licence, Mr Michaelson said.
The solicitor said Carricato had lost his licence initially for drug driving after starting to use drugs after the death of his mother and a divorce, but he was clean now.
Magistrate Peter Mithen fined Carricato $2500.
“But for the plea of guilty there would have been prison,” Mr Mithen said.
“There’s something about your offences that’s just wilful. You knew you weren’t meant to drive.”
In sentencing Carricato, Mr Mithen noted the offences occurred in 2019 and 2020 and there had been no more since.