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Veteran bought false licence
Page 35
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A former member of the French Foreign Legion drove for eight months on a bogus Irish licence. Mike Jewell reports.
A FRENCH TRUCK driver with a bogus Irish LGV driving licence was jailed for three months after Mold Crown Court heard he had spent eight months driving an artic between Ireland and France when he was not licensed to do so.
Former French Legionnaire Emanuel Richard Miche lot had never passed a test to drive the 40-tonne artic, and therefore had no licence or insurance.
In addition to the prison sentence, he was banned from driving in the UK for two years and ordered to pay £172 costs. He had been remanded in custody while awaiting sentence (CM 46 August, 'French driver faces jail for using a forged licence').
Michelot, of Bruay-la-Buissiere, had also been living at Swallow Brook Crescent in Dublin. He admitted using a driving licence calculated to deceive, having no driving licence and having no insurance.
Gareth Roberts, prosecuting, said Michelot had been stopped on the A494 at Ewloe in Flintsh ire on 26 July during a routine check by Vasa officials. The bogus Irish driving licence had been issued in Dublin two years previously and Michelot had admitted he had repeatedly used it to drive for a living for the previous eight months. Examination showed the licence appeared to have been altered; part two of the licence had been taped on to it and the watermarks did not match.
"Effectively it was a licence cobbled together, one third from one licence and two thirds from another licence," Roberts told the court. Harry Gow, defending, said Michelot did have a licence to drive LGVs but not the size and category of artic that he had driven from France to Ireland. However he had experience of driving such vehicles in combat situations with the French Foreign Legion.
Michelot had spent eight years in the Legion, and was tortured during captivity which included red-hot pokers being applied to his feet.
He left the Legion with honour and moved to Dublin. where he had a partner and children. However, he was still suffering the effects of what had happened to him and was not thinking straight when he bought the fake licence.
It was a case of a good worker, a man of honour and exemplary character, anxious to obtain well paid work to support his family. But he had clearly gone about it the wrong way.
Judge Christopher Llewellyn Jones QC said the use of the fake licence meant Michelot was driving a heavy goods vehicle he was not entitled to drive. You were in control of a HGV without insurance and that is a very serious offence," he said.
However, he took account of the fact that Michelot had pleaded guilty and had accepted responsibility immediately. He was a hardworking man and after a short prison sentence, taking into account the 26 days he had already served on remand, he would be able to return to work. However, he would be unable to drive in the UK for two years. •