Repeat offender caught driving Merc with fake insurance, NCT discs
A repeat offender who was caught driving his Mercedes while displaying fake insurance and NCT discs has been handed an eight-month suspended sentence and disqualified from driving for five years.
Alexandru Enacke (32), of Hazelgrove Estate, Tallaght, Dublin 24 appeared before Tallaght District Court, where he pleaded guilty to multiple road traffic and fraud charges following a Garda stop at Killinarden in the south Dublin suburb on December 5, 2023.
The court heard that Garda Shane Greene stopped Enacke and noticed suspicious documents on display in the vehicle.
An AXA insurance disc and an NCT disc were both seized after checks revealed they were false. The court heard that the car was in fact uninsured, had no valid NCT and that Enacke did not hold a valid Irish driving licence at the time. The car was seized and Enacke was arrested and cautioned. He told gardaí he understood why he was being detained.
He was charged with driving without insurance, driving without a valid licence and using both a false insurance disc and a false NCT disc with the intention of misleading others into accepting them as genuine.
Gardaí confirmed through AXA that no policy – lapsed, cancelled or otherwise – had ever existed for the car with that insurer.
The court heard Enacke has eight previous convictions, including two for driving without insurance. He was previously disqualified from driving for two years at Blanchardstown District Court in February 2024 and had most recently come before the courts in May this year.
Det Sgt Ruth Finnegan told the court that Enacke was driving on a Romanian licence at the time.
Counsel for the defence, Ciara Ní Ghabhann BL, said her client, who now works full-time as a labourer, had taken steps to sort out his situation and had applied for an Irish driving licence, providing a receipt to the court.
She said Enacke had set up a cleaning business with his former partner and believed the car had been insured. However, he claimed the policy lapsed without his knowledge, saying insurance correspondence went to an incorrect email address due to a typo. He told gardaí he believed the disc he received in the post was valid.
Judge Patricia McNamara said she did not believe his explanation. “Where is the certificate? Where is the letter? You don’t just get a disc. The insurance company says this policy never existed – not that it lapsed, not that it was cancelled – it never existed,” she said.
“This is a very serious matter. You are being prosecuted for fraud, and I do not accept your account. Other law-abiding people are paying for behaviour like this.”
Taking his guilty plea into account, Judge McNamara convicted and sentenced Enacke to eight months in prison, suspended for two years, and disqualified him from driving for five years. He was fined €650, to be paid within three months, and was ordered to sign a bond and comply with all existing disqualifications.