A man from Zonhoven in Limburg province has been sentenced to 18 months in prison after being found guilty of driving offences despite having already been banned from driving for life no fewer than 23 times.
The man, in his fifties, was stopped by police in December last year while wandering from side to side on the road in Hasselt while driving his partner’s car. When tested, he was found to have blood alcohol at twice the legal limit, as well as traces of amphetamine.
Because of his driving ban history, he was also charged with driving without a licence and without insurance. The prosecution requested a prison sentence of at least one year.
In police court this week, he was sentenced and ordered to forfeit his partner’s car. She in turn was found guilty of allowing him to drive while she knew he was under a driving ban.
The man’s driving history dates back to 1998, when he received his first lifetime ban. Since then he not only gathered 22 more, but also was sentenced to a number of temporary bans, each time accompanied by a prison term. The judge in the latest case decided to hand down an exemplary sentence for someone who, he said, showed “a manifest lack of respect for the rule of law and the safety of other road users.”
Alan Hope
The Brussels Times
