Man disqualified from driving until 2060 gets jail sentence reduced after being caught behind the wheel for 13th time

A SERIAL disqualified driver who “accidentally” got behind the wheel despite being banned from holding a ­licence for 45 years has had his jail sentence more than halved.

Male hands on the steering wheel of a car.

A SERIAL disqualified driver who “accidentally” got behind the wheel despite being banned from holding a ­licence for 45 years has had his jail sentence more than halved.

Full-time carer Omar Zakaria, 54, had already been jailed several times for disqualified driving when he was caught by police committing the offence a 13th time.

The Afghan immigrant is a full-time carer for his disabled brother who was seriously injured in a car accident.

Today, District Judge Sharron Norton SC reduced his custodial sentence from two years to nine months on the grounds of special circumstances saying he was of “more benefit” to the community caring for his brother than to be “continually incarcerated”.

“The issue is whether it can be brought home to him that he can’t drive,” Judge Norton SC said.

Zakaria told an appeal hearing at Parramatta District Court “I accidentally drove” when he was pulled over for a random breath test in Westmead last November.

He said he had no money for a taxi and there were no family members home to drive him to a medical clinic two kilometres away to pick up his daily medication dose for his sore back.

At the time he was on parole for a previous disqualified driving offence and had only a month earlier completed the Traffic Offenders Program.

The police facts state that when an officer asked him for his licence he said: “I don’t have one … I’m disqualified to 2060.”

He was actually disqualified until 2061.

His lawyer Hament Dhanji SC admitted his client had a “terrible record” but there was a gap of five years between a disqualified driving conviction in 2007 and one in 2013.

He said although Zakaria had several alcohol-related traffic offences he had not been caught drink-driving since 2007.

The court heard Zakaria was injured when his Blacktown home was shot at in 2013.

Judge Norton resentenced him to 18 months’ jail with nine months non-parole.

Originally published as Man disqualified from driving until 2060 gets jail sentence reduced after being caught behind the wheel for 13th time