A REPEAT offender has been told there are no special reasons to avoid a road ban after he was caught breaking the law in Herefordshire.

Henry Charles Downes appeared before magistrates for sentencing in January after he was convicted of one count of using a motor vehicle on a road or public place without third party insurance and one count of using a motor vehicle on a road without a valid test certificate at an earlier hearing in May last year.

The court heard from the prosecutor that the 34-year-old had been caught out after getting behind the wheel of a Ford in Leominster's Buckfield Road on December 15, 2022.

ALSO READ:

The vehicle did not have a valid MOT certificate in place and Downes did not have a valid insurance policy in place at the time, magistrates in Worcester were told.

He had previously been fined a total of £586, received six penalty points, and was disqualified from driving for 12 months for the offences at a hearing in November, but the case was reopened and the sentence set aside and licence endorsement removed after he submitted an application to reopen the case in December.

The case was then adjourned to consider if there were special reasons for not ordering an endorsement or disqualification.

But magistrates in January again disqualified Downes, of Portna Way, Leominster, for 12 months and handed him eight penalty points, saying that a roads ban was obligatory due to repeat offending.

He was also fined £120 and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £135 and a £48 victim surcharge.