{"id":472757,"date":"2026-05-29T08:52:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T08:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/472757\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T08:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T08:52:08","slug":"man-thought-he-didnt-need-insurance-to-drive-in-donegal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/472757\/","title":{"rendered":"Man thought he didn&#8217;t need insurance to drive in Donegal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A South African man who claimed he didn\u2019t know he was required to have car insurance in Ireland has been fined in court.<\/p>\n<p>Djamal Habbas told Judge Emile Daly at Letterkenny District Court: \u201cI didn\u2019t know the law\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The 44-year-old Habbas, of Garvan Court, Main Street, Ballybofey, was charged with having no insurance at Railway Road, Stranorlar, on November 27, 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Representing himself in court, Habbas told Judge Daily that: \u201cIf you buy a car with cash in South Africa you can drive with no insurance\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Habbas said he didn\u2019t know the law and paid for insurance the following morning.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn South Africa, it is optional,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t know the law very well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sergeant Jim Collins confirmed that Habbas has no previous convictions.<\/p>\n<p>Judge Daly convicted Habbas and fined him \u20ac350, allowing four months to pay.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-sans font-semibold text-xl md:text-[30px] leading-9 text-primary w-full\">\n        You may also be interested in\n    <\/p>\n<p>            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.donegaldaily.com\/news\/downings-road-blocked-today-for-works-635908\" class=\"block w-2\/5 shrink-0\" aria-label=\"Downings road blocked today for works\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/downings-road-blocked-today-for-works.jpg\" class=\"max-w-full w-full h-full object-contain relative z-10\" width=\"150\" height=\"84\"  alt=\"Downings road blocked today for works\" \/><\/p>\n<p>            <\/a><\/p>\n<p>            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.donegaldaily.com\/news\/search-planned-for-injured-dog-in-letterkenny-woods-635902\" class=\"block w-2\/5 shrink-0\" aria-label=\"Search planned for injured dog in Letterkenny woods\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/search-planned-for-injured-dog-in-letterkenny-woods.jpg\" class=\"max-w-full w-full h-full object-contain relative z-10\" width=\"150\" height=\"84\"  alt=\"Search planned for injured dog in Letterkenny woods\" \/><\/p>\n<p>            <\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou need to know what the law is,\u201d Judge Daly said, but spared Habbas a driving ban.<\/p>\n<p>Judge Daly explained to Habbas that she had to convict him as he accepted that he was driving without insurance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou are expected to know the law,\u201d Judge Daly added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A South African man who claimed he didn\u2019t know he was required to have car insurance in Ireland&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-472757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}