Condell Park’s Abdul Rahman El Homsi guilty of driving twice while suspended
A ‘habital traffic offender’ has copped it from a magistrate and been sentenced in court after he was caught driving and speeding while his licence was suspended.
The Express
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A man caught driving twice in two months in southwest Sydney while on a suspended licence has avoided going to jail.
Condell Park’s Abdul Rahman El Homsi, 22, faced up to three years in total and $15,000 in fines after pleading guilty to driving while suspended.
In documents submitted to Bankstown Local Court on Wednesday, police have labelled El Homsi a “habitual traffic offender”.
“My client knows how serious this is and has a strong family supporting environment,” El Homsi’s lawyer said.
“He accepts his offending behaviour and is very apologetic.”
Magistrate Glen Walsh interrupted the defence lawyer who was arguing for leniency, saying “don’t test my intelligence”.,
“There is a maximum penalty of 12 months custodial sentence for each of the charges and $5000 fine per charge,” Mr Walsh said.
“The defendant was well aware of the facts but simply made the decision to drive.
“I will not impose a full custodial sentence but it was a close run thing.
“Son, I have ordered you to serve a community corrections order. If you breach this order, I will be here and you will be jailed. You have more than 60 years ahead of you, so don’t waste it.”
El Homsi had been charged on August 31, 2019, and October 21, 2019, for driving his blue Volkswagen while his licence was suspended, and speeding.
According to documents tendered to court, when he was stopped at Sefton on August 31, El Homsi told the police: “Yes, I know my licence is suspended, I got to go sort it out with the RTA”.
El Homsi, who was also clocked doing 78km/h in a 50km zone, showed police a notice number which appeared to have the suspension starting date as October 4, 2019, which police conceded was an error by the issuing officer, according to court documents.
On December 14, 2019, El Homsi was pulled over at Miller, by police who were conducting high visibility patrols under Operation Deadpool.
Police records show he was suspended from driving until March 10, 2020.
El Homsi was convicted and sentenced to a Community Correction Order for 18 months. He has to serve a total of 200 community hours.
El Homsi is prevented from holding a driver’s licence for 12 months, starting March 4.