A Co Tyrone mother has been banned from driving for a year after overturning her car while searching for her phone.
Sarah Marie Gervin , 27, of Pinebank Gardens, Coalisland appeared before Armagh Magistrates’ last Tuesday charged driving without due care and attention.
The incident took place around 11am on June 5, last year, when police reported to the scene of a single vehicle collision.
Police found an overturned Ford Focus on a grass bank at the side of the Moy Road, Armagh.
The defendant was found at the scene by police uninjured with her partner.
When interviewed Gervin told police that she had been talking with her partner whilst driving and had asked him to look for her phone and cigarettes.
The defendant then looked down to search for her phone, she took her eyes of the road and veered off.
Gervin accepted that she had not been concentrating on the road.
Defence counsel accepted that the defendant had a “very poor record, especially considering she did not gain her full licence until May 2017”.
Court heard that the defendant has since been banned from driving until March 2019.
The defence stated that it was “very lucky that no one was seriously injured”.
The court also heard that the defendant lives with her partner and three children and that the car has now been disposed of.
District Judge Paul Copeland ordered Gervin to pay a fine of £250, along with the offender’s levy of £15, and disqualified her from driving for 12 months.
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