US resident banned, fined for driving without permit

United States resident Randolph Anderson De Gannes yesterday was banned from driving for four years and fined a total of $2,600 after he pleaded guilty to driving without a driver’s permit and insurance.
De Gannes, a house painter, told Magistrate Rajendra Rambachan in the San Fernando Traffic Court he went to the Licensing Department to get the permit but “the lines were long and the people at the counter always on lunch.”

This excuse did not sit well with Rambachan who said: “Your explanation, though honest, shows disregard for simply going to get a permit.” De Gannes was arrested by Cpl Vijay Ramdhanie  at Gulf View Link Road, La Romain and charged with both offences on Friday. Rambachan ordered De Gannes to pay $600, or serve three months imprisonment with hard labour for driving without a permit and $2,000 for driving without insurance. He was disqualified from holding or obtaining a driver’s permit for four years on each charge. The sentences are to run concurrently. De Gannes was given two days to pay the fines.

Sgt Dane Sorzano told the court that around 10 pm on Friday Ramdhanie was on roadblock duty at Gulf City Mall, La Romain, when he had cause to stop a vehicle being driven by De Gannes. When the officer asked him for driving documents, he said: “Officer I do not have a Trinidad and Tobago permit but I have a foreign one.” De Gannes produced a foreign driver’s permit which had expired since 2000. De Gannes said he returned to Trinidad from the US in 2000 on his own and travels back and forth.